The Day Before Tomorrow
by Daricio
Summary: Aizen is taking over. The situation looks bleak. And Urahara Kisuke suddenly remembers a device that may save them all. Unfortunately, nothing ever goes exactly as planned... Ichigo-centric. Time Travel gone wrong. Chapter nine: Picking up the pieces.
1. Back In Time

"The Day Before Tomorrow"

* * *

"Hey, is that... Oi! Oi, Urahara! I think I found something!"

"What? Where?"

"Over here! It's got a bunch of rock piled on it, though! Chad, you here?"

"Yeah..."

"Ow! Kurosaki-kun, where are you?"

"I'm over here. You're close. Careful, the concrete's broken everywhere, so watch your step."

"That would have been nice to know about a second ago..."

"Sorry, Inoue..."

"Ichigo was right. There's a door under here."

"Great, thanks Chad. Can you open it?"

"Sure."

Stone ground against metal as a door was shoved open, pushing aside a pile of rubble. An opening in the floor was revealed, which led down into a darkness even more complete than the one that the harried group was currently standing in.

Hesitantly, they all glanced around at each other, barely able to make out each others' forms as it was.

They were a pretty ragtag group. Ichigo, Rukia, Urahara, Chad, and Inoue had all been traveling for several hours in almost complete darkness, and that was just the walking they'd been doing that night.

The streets they ran along were all torn to shreds wherever they went, though whether that was from the shockwave of the King's Key or from the constant fighting that had been taking place since then was anyone's guess. Whatever the reason, it was hard for Chad and Inoue to find good footing, so travel had been slow.

"Think we could chance some Kido this time?" Rukia asked hesitantly. None of them wanted to chance being seen, either by the Arrancar or by Soul Society's forces, otherwise this entire journey might have been for nothing.

Urahara looked thoughtful. "For light, you mean? Hard to tell. Go down the passage a short ways and try it; I'll tell you if I can see anything from above..."

Rukia did as he suggested, stumbling down the broken stone stairway as best as she was able in the increasing darkness. When she thought she was down far enough, she began to mutter the incantation for the shot of red fire, forming it in her hands to create a lantern of sorts for them to see by.

The light blinded them all for a moment before Rukia hurriedly dimmed it. Urahara peered into the distance until he decided that the light wasn't escaping the room below to the torn landscape above. "Go. Tell me if you find anything."

Ichigo glared at him, the light of Rukia's Kido casting dark shadows across his face and making the look even more menacing. "Are you actually going to tell us what we're looking for now?"

"It's a device that will help us against Aizen." Urahara waved him off, his tone purposefully vague as he continued past him down the stairs. "I hope."

Ichigo rolled his eyes, following him. "A device. Very descriptive. How are we supposed to help you find anything if we don't know what it looks like?"

Urahara thought about this for a second as he summoned his own lamp like Rukia's. "It's just hard to describe, is all. It's been almost 40 years since I left it here, and who knows what the collapse of the building did to it... It should be a low, round platform, with several pillars around it..."

Inoue's eyes were wide. "What is it?"

"It's..." Urahara hesitated. "Well, it's actually really dangerous, and I don't even know if it will work..."

"But what _is_ it?" Rukia asked in frustration. "You've dragged us all here, and you won't even tell us-"

Urahara interrupted her, ducking underneath an arch formed by several fallen rocks and wandering off to a separate area of the underground room. "It's a time machine, all right? I don't want too many people to know about it, I've no idea exactly how, or even if, I can fix it, and it was really flakey even when I was first working on it. This is dangerous."

Ichigo scoffed. "Urahara, after everything you've put us through, we've learned to expect dangerous by now."

"A _time machine_?" Rukia stared at him. "You've had a time machine lying around, and you never used it for anything?"

Urahara shook his head. "No, no, no. See, it doesn't really work. The one time I tried to use it, it took about half of my total spirit energy, almost killed me, and only brought me back in time about three days."

"Three days?" Rukia's voice was tight now. "You risked all of our lives to bring us out here, and all you're going to give us is _three days_? Urahara, Renji was killed a week ago. Soul Society turned on us a month ago, and Aizen attacked _four months _ago. Three days won't do anything!"

Urahara turned to her, about to respond, when Chad suddenly interrupted. "Guys, I think I found it."

Immediately, Urahara hurried over to him, trying to peer through the cracks in the rock to see what he had found. "Yes! Yes, that's it! Sado-san, can you move all this without bringing more of the ceiling down?"

Chad frowned up at the rock, and then nodded. "Sure. Give me a minute."

"Urahara, three days is-"

Urahara waved her off, moving into the gaps between rocks as soon as Chad had them cleared away. "I _think_ that the more spirit energy you put into it, the further it'll bring you back. Just as long as I can make some adjustments to it..."

Ichigo folded his arms with a scowl. "You want me to use it," he stated.

Urahara nodded amiably. "I believe that you are the only person who _could_ use it. Don't worry, I'll make sure it'll work."

Ichigo didn't sound very convinced. "Sure. How?"

"I'll use it first."

Inoue frowned at him. "Urahara-san, didn't you say it almost killed you before?"

He grinned up in their direction, giving her a thumbs up. "That's what you're here for."

She gave him an alarmed look and made as if to walk towards him, but Rukia stopped her with a shake of her head. Inoue's frown deepened.

For a long time, Urahara tinkered with his machine, occasionally calling out instructions to the others to bring him certain tools, or to hold a light up so that he could see.

Finally, he proclaimed it ready, flipping on several switches on the sides of the pillars. Lights all along the sides began to flicker on and the whole thing began to hum.

Urahara looked nervous at the amount of noise it was making. "Okay. So, we need to-"

Suddenly, his reiatsu dropped dramatically and he cut himself off with a startled noise, stumbling forward and almost falling. With cries of surprise, the others all reached out to steady him.

"Urahara-san, are you all right?" Inoue exclaimed worriedly. "What happened?"

Unexpectedly, Urahara grinned at her. "What time is it?"

Rukia pulled out her beat up cell phone to peer at the time. "2:34..."

Urahara nodded, waving everyone off of him. "Okay! Ichigo, your turn, then. The machine works."

Ichigo scowled at him. "Hey, wait a minute. How do you-"

"I don't have to wait a minute," Urahara laughed. "I just used it. We checked the time right before I did. It was 2:39. It doesn't bring all of you back, nothing physical, it just takes you back to being your old self."

Understandably, the others all looked at him as if he were crazy.

Finally, Rukia came up with a response. "If you went through it before, shouldn't we make sure you go through it now so that there's no paradox?"

Urahara shook his head impatiently. "No, no, no. It takes you back to your old self. No paradox. If you sent me through it now, I'd just end up with even _lower_ reiatsu, plus triple memories of it being 2:34 instead of double memories. Anything can be changed."

"What will happen to us, then?" Rukia asked with a frown. "To our current timeline, I mean?"

"It'll be rewritten. Only Kurosaki-san will remember this timeline, just as, right now, only I remember sending me back in a few minutes," Urahara explained with a grin. "Kurosaki-san, let's do this quick, before Aizen senses the spirit energy from this thing."

Ichigo still looked unsure, but he stepped forward. "Okay... What do I have to do?"

Urahara ushered him onto the platform, looking over the machine one more time to make sure everything was in place. "See this bit here? When I say go, put as much spirit energy as you can into it. The more the better."

Ichigo nodded, placing one hand on the panel that Urahara had indicated.

"Now, once you start putting energy into it, don't stop until you don't think you can take it any more. And don't put in more than that! You do not want to kill yourself the moment you get there!" Urahara continued to instruct him. "I have no idea how far back this will take you, but as long as it's within the last 40 years, I'll know what it is. Try to get a message to me somehow. Just mention time travel, and if I don't believe you, just show me this place."

Ichigo looked nervous all of a sudden. "40 years? Urahara, I'm not that old. If I'm going back to my past self..."

"I doubt that even you have enough spirit energy to go that far back," Urahara reassured him. "I suspect it'll only be, at most, a year or so. Now, once you stop feeding it energy, you'll feel a strange, floating feeling, and then a sort of... being slammed back down, I guess. Unless something goes wrong, it shouldn't hurt much..."

"Much," Ichigo grumbled. "Fine, fine, I'm ready."

Urahara nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Then, Kurosaki-san... Good luck."

Ichigo smirked. "Sure. Rukia, Inoue, Chad... See ya then!"

"Go!"

Ichigo began to pour in spirit energy, squeezing his eyes shut so that he could concentrate on it harder. The whole machine began to vibrate, the humming growing louder and louder as Ichigo put more energy into it.

The shaking grew worse and worse, but Ichigo's eyes remained firmly closed, his body and the sword sheathed on his back both beginning to glow blue from the amount of reiatsu he was calling up.

Urahara began to look worried. "Shaking too hard," he muttered to himself. "I don't dare touch it at this point, though..."

Rukia gave him an alarmed look. "Is that bad?"

"Could be. Be on your guard," Urahara said darkly. They all returned their attention back to Ichigo, watching him intently.

Almost an entire minute went by where it seemed like none of them could breathe, watching, waiting.

"Kurosaki-san! The machine can't take it!" Urahara finally cried out in a panic. "Release!"

Ichigo's eyes flew open, his reiatsu flared up around him, and then everything on the platform was engulfed in blue and red light as the machine almost seemed to explode.

Everyone yelled, dropping to their knees and covering their heads with both arms. Smoke and small debris swirled through the air again, blocking out even the light from their makeshift Kido lanterns.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue screamed.

And then, there was silence.

Finally, the dust began to settle a little. "Everyone all right?" Urahara called with a cough.

"I'm okay," Chad got to his feet, dusting himself off.

"Ichigo?" Rukia was close to hysterics, raising her light high and forcing it brighter. "Ichigo, are you okay?"

There was no response from the direction of the platform, but Ichigo's dark form could be seen standing on it, his head bowed and the light from Rukia's Kido throwing strange shadows across what could be seen of his face.

Then, suddenly, his eyes opened and he looked up at them with a maniacal grin. Everyone gasped and Rukia had to stifle a scream. Ichigo's hollow mask was forming slowly across his face, his eyes gold and black, glinting maliciously.

Ichigo laughed, his voice heavily distorted, and he focused on Urahara. "Ha! Now, you've done it!" he cried happily. "If you weren't totally screwed before, you sure are now!"

"Kurosaki-kun?" Inoue asked in a wavering voice.

He smirked at her. "The King ain't here any more. Totally, absolutely gone! Great job, Urahara-san!" Bending his knees to fall into a crouch, he reached over his shoulder and grabbed Zangetsu's hilt. "Now you all get to play with me!"

With that, he lunged at Urahara, unsheathing Zangetsu as he swung it forward. With a grim expression, Urahara unsheathed Benihime and blocked the incoming blow. Undeterred, Ichigo swung again, laughing insanely.

"Ichigo! NO!" Rukia screamed.

At that, Ichigo redirected his attack, rounding on Rukia threateningly. "There's nothing you can do about this now, Rukia-chan! It's over!" He ran at her, but Urahara flash stepped between the two of them, blocking his attack again.

"Run! All of you, run!" Urahara yelled.

Ichigo cackled madly again. "Run all you like! Where will you go? Back to Soul Society, who rejected you? Back to the Vaizard, who will kill you for this? Or straight into Aizen's forces? You have no hope now, morons!"

"Go!" Urahara urged again. Rukia and Inoue remained frozen, but Chad grabbed them, throwing them on his shoulders and running without another word.

As soon as they were out of sight, Urahara shoved hard against Ichigo's blade to force some distance between them. "Awake, Benihime..."

Ichigo grinned. "Do you really have the guts to kill me, Urahara-san? After all you've already done to me?"

Urahara's eyes were shaded, revealing absolutely no emotion. "I do."

With a joyful cry of battle, Ichigo attacked.

And then, suddenly, everything _changed_.

Both of them froze as, all around them, the scenery began to shift and blur. Fallen rocks became tables set up with a myriad of science equipment. Broken concrete merged to become a clean, tiled floor and plain white walls. Faint light shone in through a newly recreated stairway, which led back up to the beautifully constructed building above it.

Urahara abruptly found himself falling through darkness, with flashes of colors and pictures flying past all around him in a whirlwind of confusion.

"Kurosaki-san went back!" Urahara crowed in triumph. "He changed something! Everything's changing!"

Faster and faster the images came now, with Urahara only able to catch glimpses as they went by.

Scenes from his own past: Renji, lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and Rukia in tears, hovering over him; Ichigo and his friends huddling together over a campfire, trying to find something to laugh about as they told stories of the way things used to be; Everyone running for their lives as Soul Society's forces broke their way past Hachi's barriers and invaded their hiding place; Aizen's cold smirk as he watched over the destruction of Karakura town...

Scenes from a past that would soon come to be his: Rukia slamming a photograph down on the counter of the Urahara shop, demanding an explanation for something depicted there; Inoue, Chad, Rukia, and Renji, walking warily together with a group of Shinigami through the halls of Las Noches; Tatsuki punching through a hollow's mask under the careful observation of Yoruichi; Ichigo, his hollow mask pulled up on top of his head to reveal a satisfied smirk, and his uniform cut sleeveless to show off a very familiar tattoo...

Then, what had passed was no longer there and what would pass replaced it. The world formed solid around him once again, and life continued as if it had never stopped or changed at all.

* * *

When Ichigo's world stopped spinning, it was with a harsh and painful jolt. He stumbled forward and instinctively jammed the sword he was holding point down into the ground to steady himself.

Sword? He hadn't had Zangetsu in his hands a split second ago, he was sure. And anyway, looking down at this strangely shaped thing, this wasn't Zangetsu...

Breathing heavily, feeling absolutely exhausted all of a sudden, Ichigo could do nothing more than just stand there, staring in confusion at his own hands on this sword's hilt.

That was, until he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, coming at him fast and glinting in the light. His reaction was immediate; he yanked the sword out of the ground, turned, and blocked the incoming attack. Metal clashed against metal, and Ichigo froze as he caught a glimpse of his opponent.

"Old man Zangetsu?" he blurted in surprise. "W-what?"

Zangetsu merely gave him a level look, raising the sword he was holding to attack again.

Abruptly, there was a release of spirit energy and Zangetsu's form disappeared, replaced by a familiar white doll and Zangetsu's usual sword form.

"Ichigo, what happened?" a voice called from off to one side. Ichigo turned, his eyes wide, to find Yoruichi coming towards him, looking concerned.

He stared, not answering her question. It had been a while since he'd seen Yoruichi. She and Soifon had been off on a mission of some sort for Urahara for the past month, and they had only heard brief reports from them every now and then. To see her here, looking much less worse for wear than any of them had been in a long time, was a surprising sight.

She was frowning at him, now. "Ichigo, your reiatsu just plummeted for no reason. What. Happened."

Ichigo opened his mouth to respond, and then closed it again, looking around in sudden confusion. "Uh... Wait, where are we?"

It looked familiar. A wide open space with a blue sky; rugged terrain that occasionally had the worn look of battle around it; and strange swords of every shape protruding from the rocks every few feet.

His comment brought surprise to Yoruichi's face, and she flash stepped to his side, placing the back of one hand on his forehead and closing her eyes as she ran a quick diagnostics spell over him. As she did so, Ichigo looked down at himself.

To his surprise, he was covered in a fair number of injuries, far more than he'd had just a minute ago, he was sure. Bandages covered most of his midsection to almost halfway up his chest, and almost every bit of skin he could see had cuts, scrapes, and bruises somewhere. As Yoruichi stood performing her healing Kido whatever, he could feel a trickle of blood running down the side of his face.

Ichigo frowned. Urahara's machine hadn't hurt him this badly when it had exploded, had it? He was sure that he would have remembered receiving the large wounds that covered him, especially whatever it was that had happened to his stomach, which was aching suddenly.

"How are you feeling?" Yoruichi asked, dropping her hand and forcing him to look up at her.

Ichigo blinked at the question. "Tired," he answered truthfully. "Yoruichi, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure." Yoruichi bit her lower lip in confusion. "Did you do anything just now that was different than how you've been training?"

Ichigo paused, and then shook his head unsurely. "Um... Training? I haven't been..."

His eyes widened suddenly as his surroundings finally clicked with him. This was Soul Society. He was in Soul Society, in Urahara's hidden training grounds. The swords scattered everywhere were pieces of Zangetsu, of himself, set up just like they had been for his Bankai training.

Ichigo sat down abruptly. "Bankai training?" he mumbled in disbelief. "I've gotta be dreaming."

"Ichigo?" Yoruichi knelt beside him, snapping her fingers in his face to make him look up at her again. "Stay with me here. What happened?"

"I... I don't know. Why are we-"

His question was cut off by a sudden explosion from above, and both of them flinched, whirling to face the opening to the training grounds.

"Ha! I thought I'd find you here, Ichigo!" a familiar voice called smugly.

Ichigo's eyes widened as a certain red-head dropped down to their level and began walking towards him, his released sword laid across his shoulder and a smirk on his face.

"R-Renji..." Ichigo whispered.

This was impossible. Totally impossible. Renji was dead. He'd watched him die, helpless to do anything about it. The guilt he'd felt over that night had been haunting him since then. The only way Renji could be alive would be...

Urahara's machine... had worked? If Ichigo hadn't already been sitting, he definitely would have crumpled to the ground then.

It had worked. This didn't just _look_ like his Bankai training, this _was_ his Bankai training. _Then_ had become _now_!

Renji was alive! Aizen hadn't attacked yet! He had gone back far enough, he had a second chance now!

Restraining the urge to yell with joy, Ichigo settled for grinning at his best friend. "Yo, Renji. It's good to see you."

* * *

AUUUUUGH THE PLOT BUNNIES WHY DO THEY EAT MY SOOOOOUUUUL???

I'm trying to do my schoolwork! Honestly, I am! But random stuff like this keeps popping up and demanding me to write it, and I'm too much of a wimp to say no...

Yeah, the only reason this one is actually short is because this is just kind of a teaser chapter, to see what kind of response I get, so I can figure out whether or not I want to write the whole thing. I've got plenty of ideas, it's just that if I wrote it, it would become so looooong... T.T Your opinions are appreciated!

I actually have art for this story posted on my deviantArt account. XD But the picture itself is kind of a huge spoiler, so don't go look at it if you don't want to know where I'm going with this. XD

A huge thanks to B/k for betaing this for me, even though I finished writing it while she was still working on betaing Hollow Feelings. XD I'm terrible. Thank you!

And Hollow Feelings should be posted up soon!

Oh, one final note: this story, like my others, will have no pairings. Just friendships. =D

Anyway, please tell me what you think!


	2. Nothing Goes As Planned

Okay, those of you who watch my profile have probably noticed by now that my hard drive crashed, and at that time, I lost a lot of information, including 34 pages of Day Before Tomorrow and 17 pages of Feeling Hollow. I finally got a new hard drive, and I've got my computer up and running the way it should be, but all that information is still lost.

So, this is my attempt at rewriting those pages I lost. When you're reading it, keep in mind just how much work has gone into this chapter. Bear with me here. I'm trying to deal with a computer that needed re-convincing that words like "Ichigo", "zanpakutou", and "Hueco Mundo" aren't misspelled.

Random note: you may also want to read my other story, Hollow Feelings (the ginormous one-shot about Ichigo's Hollow). I mean, you _can_ just read this without it, but I actually got the whole idea for this story while I was writing Hollow Feelings. Ichigo's hollow acts a little weird during this chapter, but Hollow Feelings sort of explains why. My Arrancar-theory in Feeling Hollow explains the rest of the way why. So, y'know.

Oh, spoiler warning: I'm trying to follow the recent manga chapters as best I can as far as Ichigo's past/future goes, so there are very vague mentions of manga events up to the latest one.

Anyway, so let's go. This chapter begins exactly where the last one left off.

* * *

Ichigo sat on the floor of the underground training area, watching in shock as Renji strode towards him with a confident grin on his face, his zanpakutou slung casually over one shoulder. One thought kept running through Ichigo's head over and over: It had worked!

Urahara's machine had worked! He had somehow managed to go back in time, all the way back to his Bankai training! Renji was still alive; Aizen hadn't attacked yet; He had a second chance!

Ichigo grinned at Renji in relief. "Yo, Renji. Good to see you."

Renji apparently didn't catch the heavy emotion with which Ichigo spoke, because he replied sarcastically. "Che. Like I'd go off and die or something from the scratches _you_ gave me."

That threw Ichigo off for a moment, and then he remembered the context: The last time this Renji had seen him was when the two of them had been trying to kill each other. He smirked back, trying to force himself to act 'normal' so that his friend wouldn't think he'd gone nuts. "Yeah, sure. So, let me guess, you're training so that I don't kick your butt so hard next time."

Renji rolled his eyes. "You wish. Actually, I've got some news for you that you're not going to like."

Ichigo frowned, trying to remember what news Renji had brought when he'd broken into the middle of his Bankai training before. "Oh?"

"It's about Rukia's execution," Renji said gravely. "It's been-"

Ichigo remembered. "Moved up again. To noon tomorrow."

Renji and Yoruichi both stared at him for a long moment. Then, Renji shrugged. "You're better informed than I thought, then. Yeah, it got moved up. We don't have much time."

"I can finish my training," Ichigo said confidently, grinning. Of course he could, he was done already.

Yoruichi continued to stare at him. "That's… but that gives you less than a day! That's-"

"I can finish!" Ichigo interrupted her. "Trust me. I can do this."

Renji smirked at him. "Sure you can. That's why you were collapsed on the ground when I came in here."

Ichigo scrambled to his feet irritably. "Hey! Say that to my face, pineapple-head!"

"I just did, strawberry!"

"Why you…!"

Yoruichi stepped in between the two of them, looking very annoyed. "Knock it off, you two. Ichigo, he is right. Are you up to this? Should we continue the training?"

Ichigo hesitated. He didn't need to finish his Bankai training this time around. But did he really want to tell Yoruichi that?

She wouldn't believe him. Even if she did, Renji wouldn't. And besides, if he wanted to change anything this time around, it might be better if nobody else knew about it, so that they wouldn't get in his way.

He could just imagine the lecture from Yoruichi: "Don't change things right now! Wait for the opportune moment! Let's get a plan ready!"

Yeah, it'd be one giant waste of time, while Aizen escaped off to Hueco Mundo a second time. That'd be just perfect.

So the question was, how was he supposed to convince Yoruichi that he didn't need to finish Bankai training without explaining everything to her? Ichigo frowned, trying to come up with something.

"Ichigo?" Yoruichi waved a hand in his face. "Are you all right?"

Ichigo nodded distractedly. "Yeah, I... I think I need to talk to my sword for a bit before I continue. You know, privately?" He tapped the side of his head once.

Renji smirked. "Just going to meditate for a while, then? Boring! I'm almost done with my Bankai training, so I'll just head off over there. Don't get in my way, got it, strawberry?"

Ichigo waved him off with a small smile. "Yeah, yeah. Don't hurt yourself."

"What was that?!"

"Go!" Ichigo shook his head in amusement at Renji's fuming. They _had_ argued constantly, hadn't they? Always trying to show off. If only...

He stopped that train of thought in its tracks. There was no need for if-onlys anymore. He could change things now.

As Renji stormed off to start his training, Ichigo sat down again, laying his hands in his lap and closing his eyes. Traveling to the inner world of his mind always required a lot of concentration for him, but he had finally been able to get to the point where he could enter it by himself, without Zangetsu (or someone else) pulling him in.

After a moment, he found himself falling through the darkness and coming to rest on the sideways office buildings within his mind. He glanced around automatically, feeling, as he usually did, a little wary. He knew logically that his inner hollow hadn't appeared in here since he'd defeated him, but he still couldn't help feeling like he was about to be attacked every time he came in.

The only thing he spotted, of course, was Zangetsu standing balanced on the flag pole of one of the buildings. With a sigh, Ichigo headed over to him.

The zanpakutou was watching him suspiciously. "Yes?" he inquired.

Ichigo shrugged. "Just wondering if you had any suggestions, Zangetsu-san."

Zangetsu raised an eyebrow at him. "Suggestions about what?"

"About Yoruichi-san, of course," Ichigo frowned. "I mean, I should probably go rescue Rukia now, but I can't just go up to Yoruichi-san and tell her, 'By the way, I completed Bankai training already!' She's not going to accept that."

Zangetsu's voice suddenly became stern. "I'm not going to accept that, either, Ichigo. What are you talking about?"

Ichigo glanced up at him in confusion. "What do you mean, what am I talking about? You know. We've done this before. I have Bankai already."

"I think you hit him a bit too hard or something, Zangetsu-san," a voice from behind spoke up suddenly. "His head's all messed up!"

Ichigo spun around, startled to see his inner hollow standing less than two feet away from him. Automatically, his hand went for his sword hilt. "You! What are you doing here?"

His inner hollow backed away from him with a grin, raising both hands up in a defensive 'surrender' motion. "Hey! No need to get violent, partner!"

Ichigo stared at him. "No need to get violent?" he repeated incredulously.

His hollow just smirked at him in response, his hands still raised. "Well, not right now, no. Seriously, though, what's up with you? You're talking crazy! Bankai?"

Angrily, Ichigo opened his mouth to retort, but Zangetsu interrupted him. "He has a point, Ichigo. What are you talking about?"

That brought Ichigo up short, and he scowled at his zanpakutou in confusion, vaguely wondering why he didn't seem to be surprised that the hollow was there. Slowly, he answered his question. "We've been through Bankai training before. Urahara's machine sent us back here, yeah, but we don't have to-"

Zangetsu raised a hand to stop him. "Urahara's machine? What machine?"

Ichigo stared. "Did you not just see the massive explosion we were just in? Lots of lights, suddenly we're here again?"

"You're talking crazy talk," his hollow informed him with a laugh. "What explosion?"

"Oh, come on! There's no way you didn't _notice_! You were-" Something dawned on Ichigo suddenly, and his mouth fell open in surprise as he turned to stare first at his hollow and then back up at Zangetsu. "You... Wait, you didn't come back here with me?"

"Come back where, Ichigo?" Zangetsu was still watching him worriedly.

His hollow had a look of amused interest on his face. "In case you didn't notice, Ichigo, you kind of can't help but to take us with you when you go places." He gestured vaguely around him, indicating the sideways world.

Ichigo shook his head irritably. "It's not a 'where'. It's 'when'. Urahara built a time machine a while back, and I used it to go back in time. I... I assumed you would come back with me, Zangetsu-san."

There was a moment of silence, and then his hollow cracked up. "Time travel? Seriously? You're from the future?" He laughed again, shaking his head. "No way, now I _know_ you're crazy."

Ichigo growled. "Why, you-"

Zangetsu stopped him before he could continue, addressing the hollow. "No, his explanation does make sense."

His hollow smirked. "Oh, really? How, exactly?"

"How else would he know the exact time of Rukia's execution? You know as well as I do that he never received that information from anyone. Also, how else would he know how to enter his inner world on his own?"

His hollow shrugged noncommittally. "And?"

Zangetsu's expression did not change. "How else would he know who and what _you_ are?"

At that, the hollow's smirk faded, replaced first with a look of surprise, and then deep contemplation. "Huh! You're right!" He looked Ichigo up and down thoughtfully. "So, time travel?"

With a frown, Ichigo nodded.

"How far did you travel back? And how does that work, anyway? The not taking us with you part, I mean."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. He didn't like that it was his hollow, of all people, asking him the questions, but they were valid questions that needed answered, even if just for himself.

"I don't know how it works. Urahara invented the thing, not me. He said something about not taking back anything physical, though, so I guess that could be it: it only took one soul."

His hollow nodded. "And how far?"

Ichigo's gaze wandered up to the buildings and clouds above him as he mentally calculated the time that had passed. From this point, there was a month for Vaizard training, another month or so (hard to say, exactly) living in hiding, and a few weeks here and a few weeks there for all the stuff in between those.

With a shrug, he hazarded a guess. "Um... Three, maybe three and a half months?"

His hollow laughed. "Only three months? Man, that's some time machine! That's terrible! And here I was thinking it was something like several years! Three months?!"

"Better than three _days_," Ichigo shot back. "Which is all Urahara could make it do. I'm lucky I got this far back."

His hollow continued to snicker. "Yeah, yeah, all right. So, did you get back far enough to do whatever it is you came back to do?"

Ichigo scowled. "It should be, as long as no one gets in my way while I'm trying to do things." He glared pointedly at his hollow.

His hollow gave him a confused look, which slowly faded to a smirk. "Yeah, yeah. I'm working on it, partner." Ichigo frowned and opened his mouth to question this bizarre statement, but the hollow continued thoughtfully. "Those must have been _some_ three months, though. You definitely seem stronger, anyway. Do I get stronger, too?"

"That's an understatement," Ichigo muttered under his breath.

The hollow's grin widened and he exclaimed joyfully, "Great! So, soon I'll catch up to you, and..." He trailed off, paused a moment, and then laughed. "Oh, never mind. Now you're three months ahead of me! Wow, it's going to take forever to catch up, isn't it?"

"You'll never-" Ichigo cut himself off abruptly as a thought struck him. His hollow was right; he was way behind Ichigo now. If he were to fight him now, Ichigo would definitely win, hands down. Maybe then, he'd be able to use his hollow powers to their full extent, for once, and surprise Aizen with them. Then, he'd be able to-

No, that was a bad idea. Yoruichi and Renji were outside, and he had been told what had happened the first time he'd fought with his hollow. He wasn't about to unleash his hollow form on his friends. He would have to take care of his hollow _after_ he had rescued Rukia. He shouldn't get _that_ much stronger in that amount of time. Should be no problem.

His hollow was watching him, trying to interpret his sudden silence. When Ichigo looked up at him, he grinned. "Don't worry, I'll just have to train faster, that's all."

Ichigo scowled again. "What's that supposed to mean?"

His hollow laughed. "Duh. What do you think it means?"

"You...!"

Zangetsu interrupted him, trying to bring the conversation back to its original topic. "Ichigo, why did you come back in time?"

His hollow's grin widened. "Oh, right! I was going to ask that! So, who died?"

"What?!" Ichigo's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, come on, something had to have gone wrong, or you wouldn't have needed to go back in time. Who died? I hope it wasn't Chad." His hollow continued to smirk as he talked.

Ichigo scowled back. "No," he bit out, already starting to regret his decision not to fight his hollow right now.

"Rukia-chan, then?" his hollow guessed lazily.

"No!"

"Well, then, who?"

"Everyone, okay?!" Ichigo snapped. "Renji, Tatsuki, Keigo, everyone _else _in Karakura town, a _ton_ of Shinigami, _everybody_! And all because of _me_! There, you happy?!"

His hollow obviously wasn't expecting that, and for a long moment, he simply stared at Ichigo with surprise. Finally, he spoke softly. "Sorry."

"Like you care," Ichigo ground out between clenched teeth. Irritably, he forced himself to focus on Zangetsu. "Look, one of the Shinigami captains turned traitor, and he destroyed Karakura town to make some key thing. Yoruichi's going to want me to continue this training, but I already have Bankai, and I don't have time to mess around. He makes his first move right after Rukia's scheduled execution tomorrow. I have to strike early. What should I do to make Yoruichi lay off?"

Zangetsu frowned at him. "Continue the training, of course."

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "I already have Bankai," he repeated. "I don't need to-"

"Ichigo, what is Bankai?" his hollow asked suddenly, looking serious. He ignored Ichigo's sudden glare in his direction and answered his own question. "It's a Shinigami's ultimate bond with their zanpakutou. You may've used Bankai in your time, but you haven't achieved that level with _this _Zangetsu."

Ichigo's glare wavered, and then faded as he glanced over at Zangetsu. Slowly, Zangetsu nodded, indicating that the hollow had spoken correctly.

Abruptly, Ichigo began to panic. "I-I don't have time to regain Bankai!" he stammered. "I barely made it to Rukia the first time! If I've been wasting time standing here talking to you _and_ I still have to do training, I'm not going-"

"Do not have _fear_, Ichigo," Zangetsu scolded him. "Your training should go faster here than it did in your own time."

Ichigo looked unsure. "Why?"

"Think about it, partner!" his hollow laughed. "You don't have to relearn the techniques. You just have to prove to Zangetsu-san that you can do it! Review, you know?"

Ichigo stared at him distrustfully. Finally, he scowled. "I _hate_ it when you make sense." He turned back to Zangetsu. "Fine, I can do that. Let's get started, then. I'll go get Yoruichi to get the doll ready."

He immediately began concentrating on heading back to his own body. He almost felt rude for leaving so abruptly, but being that close to his inner hollow for that long was making him uneasy, and he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

As his view of his inner world faded to black, his hollow turned to Zangetsu with an oddly sad expression on his face, and Ichigo caught the beginning of his comments before they faded away: "He really doesn't like me much, does he? I wonder what I ever did to-"

Ichigo shook his head in an attempt to clear it. His hollow had been acting strangely the entire time he'd been in there, and he had...

But this wasn't the time to be thinking about that. He'd deal with his hollow _later_, when he had _time_.

Yoruichi noticed his movements and hurried over to him as he got to his feet. "Well?"

Ichigo smirked at her, ignoring the slight dizziness that arose just from standing up. "Let's continue the training. I can do this."

Swiftly, she nodded, picking up the Bankai doll and propping it up for him. Ichigo unsheathed Zangetsu and plunged the blade into the doll, the kidou within it forcefully materializing Zangetsu's human form as both blade and doll disappeared.

Zangetsu gave Ichigo a level look. "All right, Ichigo. Are you ready to back up your claims?"

Ichigo grinned, reaching around behind him instinctively and grabbing the hilt of one of the many versions of his sword that were scattered everywhere. "Of course, old man Zangetsu. Any time you're ready."

Zangetsu nodded and, procuring his own blade from somewhere, ran at Ichigo. The fight began.

At first, the fight was easy. Zangetsu was obviously caught off guard by what, to him, was a sudden jump in Ichigo's fighting ability, and Ichigo nearly let his guard down. However, the zanpakutou recovered quickly, and a way-too-arrogant comment from Ichigo was, thankfully, cut off when Zangetsu suddenly increased his own ability to match his. After that, Ichigo was once again struggling to regain the upper hand, just as he always had when fighting him.

Ichigo wasn't particularly worried, though. He always enjoyed the challenge of fighting against his zanpakutou, and anyway, his hollow had been right: he already knew what Zangetsu was looking for in this battle. Steadily, he began driving the fight towards a specific corner of the fighting ground, where a specific sword was waiting.

It wasn't really the sword itself. Ichigo knew this as well. He had actually been fighting with the blade for quite a while, the first time, before Zangetsu had stopped him and told him that his training was complete.

The sword pieces represented pieces of Ichigo's soul, and therefore using the right piece was important to victory here. However, there was something more.

It wasn't just the sword. It was a mindset. It was, as his inner hollow had said, a connection with his zanpakutou, an understanding of who Zangetsu was, what his abilities were, and how he could use them. It was an understanding of what his own abilities were, and how they meshed with Zangetsu's. It was the idea of proving to his zanpakutou that together, they had the ability to succeed.

With this in mind, Ichigo lunged once more at Zangetsu with the blade he had picked up, pushing him far enough back that he had enough time to whirl around and grab the version of his sword that had won him the victory the last time. The sword that represented, among other things, Zangetsu himself.

Now, the battle was half-won. Ichigo turned back to his zanpakutou and began once more to fight. Zangetsu's expression never changed as they exchanged blows, but somehow, Ichigo felt that his zanpakutou approved of his attitude.

Finally, Ichigo brought the sword down hard enough against the other's blade that it shattered. The attack would have continued on to hit Zangetsu himself, but he reached up at the last minute with his other hand and caught the blade. Slowly, he smiled at Ichigo.

"You have found it," he noted solemnly, releasing the sword and letting Ichigo swing it up to a rest across one shoulder.

Ichigo smirked at him. "Of course I did, Zangetsu-san. I know you."

Zangetsu nodded in agreement and stepped back from Ichigo, raising his free hand above his head. Ichigo, knowing what was coming, didn't even flinch as every sword in the area lifted itself from the ground and flew through the air towards Zangetsu, who caught the first one lightly and then held it in place as the others merged with it one by one.

Eventually, Zangetsu was holding all of the pieces fused together, a sword that now looked like a duplicate of the sword that Ichigo had. "All right," he said with a gleam in his eyes, "show me our Bankai."

Ichigo grinned and brought his blade down in front of him, holding it parallel to the ground as Zangetsu did exactly the same with his. The white hilt wrap twisted around Ichigo's arm, and as he poured energy into the blade, there was an explosion of blue and white, which shifted midway through to a deep black tinged with red.

When the light cleared away, Zangetsu had disappeared back into the depths of Ichigo's mind and Ichigo was standing alone, wearing his usual Bankai outfit for the "first" time. Exclamations of awe behind him drew his attention, and he turned to smirk at Yoruichi and Renji, the latter of whom had scrambled over to see what the explosion had been all about.

"N-no way," Renji breathed. "You got it?!"

Yoruichi looked as though she could hardly believe it herself. "Two days. More like one and a half, Ichigo. That's... That's amazing!"

Renji turned to stare at her. "A day and a half?! Wait, you mean he just started his Bankai training a day and a half ago?"

Ichigo grinned and flash stepped to stand beside them. "What? Jealous, Renji?"

Renji flinched at Ichigo's speed, and then turned to glare at him with a scoff. "Jealous? Of course not! Why would I be jealous of someone like you?"

Ichigo laughed. "You're jealous. You better get back to work, Renji, or you'll never catch up to me!"

"Why I oughta... Now, listen here, brat! I could kick your butt any day, Bankai or not!" Renji brandished Zabimaru at him threateningly.

"Oh?" Ichigo laughed again. "I seem to remember being the _winner _of our last battle, Renji, and that was way before Bankai."

With a growl, Renji lunged at him. Ichigo didn't move, waiting to sidestep at the last minute. Yoruichi, however, didn't even let him get close, flash stepping between the two of them. "Will you two knock it off? Renji, get back to training! Ichigo, rest!"

Ichigo stared at her. "Rest? No way! I've gotta go rescue Rukia now!"

"You're joking, right?" Yoruichi glared back at him. "Your spirit energy is totally drained. To be honest, I'm surprised you still had enough to go to Bankai in the first place. You're shaking all over, and I suspect that the only reason you're still standing is the sheer amount of energy that your Bankai keeps flowing through you. Return to shikai, and you'll collapse."

Ichigo scoffed, balling his free hand into a fist to stop it from shaking. "I'm fine. Never felt better. I can fight."

Yoruichi crossed her arms, raising one eyebrow at him with a smirk. "All right. But you'll need to return to shikai anyway, or you _will_ run out of spirit energy."

Grumbling, Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, sure." Slowly, he concentrated on bringing Zangetsu back to its shikai form. This done, he sheathed his sword and spread his arms open towards Yoruichi to indicate himself. "There. See? Totally..."

Abruptly, the edges of Ichigo's vision went black and he found himself staring up at the painted ceiling above him. Renji, who had apparently caught him just before he hit the ground, was laughing at him. "Totally fine. Right."

Embarrassed by the fact that he had just momentarily blacked out, Ichigo tried to struggle out of Renji's grasp. "L-Lemme go, I'm _fine_!"

"Ichigo, sleep," Yoruichi ordered firmly. "You have plenty of time."

"But I don't!" Ichigo protested. "I have to... I have to..."

But the world around him was fading into blackness again. The combined effects of general sleep-depravation, walking all night, the time traveling, and then re-achieving Bankai were all too much. He was totally drained, and no matter how hard he struggled to stay awake, it was impossible.

"But... I still have to..."

Ichigo drifted unwillingly to sleep.

* * *

Someone was shaking his shoulder lightly. "Oi, Ichigo."

For a moment, Ichigo considered trying to make them stop, or possibly telling whoever it was to go away, but he was so tired, he didn't even have the energy to do that.

"Leave him be. He needs rest," a low voice spoke up. Mercifully, the shaking stopped, and Ichigo began to drift again.

The first voice answered back. "Renji just left without us. He's been sleeping a long time, now. He said that he needed to act quickly."

There was a sigh. "I do not know what Ichigo has been going through these past three months, but I suspect that he hasn't gotten a chance to sleep much. Let him get as much as he can now. The execution is not due to take place for quite a while yet."

"Che. Whatever you say, Zangetsu-san."

At that, the two of them stopped speaking, and sometime in the resulting silence, Ichigo went back to sleep.

* * *

Can't breathe! Wet! Splashing! Water! Water! Why? Can't breathe! Water?!

Ichigo awoke abruptly as his head, along with the rest of him, went completely underwater. His sleep-groggy mind still too busy trying to figure out what was going on to even attempt to figure out which way was up, Ichigo panicked, his desperate flailing brought to a confusing slow motion by the drag of the water.

His feet made contact with a hard surface, and he instinctively braced against it and pushed himself away. This appeared to be the right thing to do, because a moment later, he broke through the surface of the water and gasped in air, coughing and sputtering.

What was going on? Why was he standing in a pool of hot water? Why-

A light laugh from above drew his attention, and he turned to glare at Yoruichi, who had obviously just thrown him in.

"What-" Ichigo was cut off by a fit of coughing, but when that stopped, he continued angrily. "What was that for?!"

Yoruichi grinned at him. "We need to get moving. I figured the water would clear your head a bit. Besides," she added, cutting off an irritated response from Ichigo, "the hot springs are healing your wounds."

Blinking, Ichigo looked down at the water he was standing in, faintly surprised to find that he _was_ feeling much better than he had when he'd gone to sleep.

That was odd. You didn't find many magical healing springs, and the only one he'd ever seen was in the training grounds... in... Soul Society.

His memories of recent events finally caught up to him, and he nearly laughed. Right, time travel. He _was_ in Urahara's Soul Society training grounds, and he'd just regained Bankai. And then he had-

He'd fallen asleep! He looked back up at Yoruichi with wide eyes, his previous panic returning. "How long have I been asleep?" he demanded.

She looked as though she was about to laugh. "Not long. Rukia's execution is still a few hours away."

Ichigo grit his teeth in frustration. Only a few hours?! That barely gave him any time! Why did he have to sleep so long? Why didn't anyone wake him? Where was Renji?

He glanced around. Where _was_ Renji? He decided he'd better ask. "Did Renji leave already?"

Yoruichi nodded. "He completed his training and headed out. I tried to get him to wait for you, or at least wake you up, but he said he needed to fight on his own." She shrugged. "Besides, you weren't budging at that point. Are you feeling better now?"

Ichigo scowled. "Sure. Much better," he answered grudgingly. Slowly, he climbed out of the hot spring and began wringing his clothes dry, shaking water out of his hair. "All right, let's get going."

"Here." Yoruichi tossed a towel over his head. Ichigo snatched it off in annoyance and continued trying to dry himself off.

"Good enough," he insisted after a moment, throwing the towel aside and starting to look around for his zanpakutou. "Let's go."

Yoruichi's amused expression faded. "Why such a rush? We've got plenty of time."

"To go after Renji, of course! Knowing that idiot, he's going to get himself killed."

Yoruichi smirked at him. "Says the human who stormed into the middle of Soul Society's best fighters and purposefully picked fights with the strongest of them."

Ichigo grinned smugly as he picked Zangetsu up off the ground and sheathed it on his back. "Oh, shut up. Come on, let's go save Renji's butt."

"Let Renji fight his own fights," Yoruichi advised. "I suggest we break Rukia out of that tower while everyone's attention is on him. We should leave soon, but before we head out, I want to teach you something. It will increase your speed, so you can keep up with the likes of Byakuya."

Ichigo scowled again. Right, he hadn't learned shunpo yet at this point. But he definitely didn't have time to listen to explanations he'd heard before. "Keep up with him? I can already move fast enough to outpace him."

Yoruichi raised an eyebrow. "No offense, Ichigo; I know your growth rate is ridiculous, but you're not going to be able to-"

"I don't need shunpo," Ichigo interrupted. "I can keep up with him. Trust me."

Yoruichi stopped dead, watching him with a suspicious expression. "You know the name of the technique already?"

Ichigo tried to hold back a smirk. That was the second time he'd done this. At this rate, people were going to think he was psychic. "Urahara mentioned it before. Flash steps. It makes you move fast. I don't need to learn it. Let's go."

"You don't need to learn it," Yoruichi repeated incredulously, her expression not changing. "All right. Prove it. You're it." She flash stepped at him and touched his shoulder, and then she took off in the opposite direction.

Ichigo glared. "Oh, I do not have time for this," he groaned to himself before chasing after her.

Thankfully, it wasn't going to take too long to catch her. He'd been training his shunpo in battle since he'd first learned it from Yoruichi, and while he could never avoid getting tagged by her in these games of hers, he had long since reached the point where he could get her back. This would only take a minute, tops.

Or so he thought. As Yoruichi dodged nimbly around rocks and even ducked directly under his arm to shoot off the other way on multiple occasions, Ichigo slowly realized that she was much faster than he'd thought.

He was forced to come to a bitter conclusion. Either Yoruichi had been _holding back_ on him in their previous battles, or _he_ had somehow gotten _slower_ in the weeks since he'd last seen her.

"_It's probably the time travel, actually,_" a familiar, eerie voice broke into his thoughts suddenly, causing Ichigo to flinch, nearly crashing into one of the rock piles.

Managing to dodge to one side and come to a screeching halt just in time to avoid it, Ichigo turned his attention inwards enough to see his hollow watching him with a smirk. "_What? What are you-_" he started angrily.

"_See, maybe your body isn't used to using shunpo that fast yet._ You_ know how to, but _it_ isn't capable of it yet,_" the hollow theorized. He grinned. "_Fascinating technique, though. You know, I've actually got one like that called sonido. They're pretty much the same, but-_"

Ichigo sputtered unintelligibly for a moment before spitting out, "_S_-_shut up! I'm busy! And you just scared the living daylights out of me!_"

His hollow's expression immediately turned serious. "_Oh, right. Sorry._" He vanished from Ichigo's mental sight.

Ichigo blinked in surprise. He hadn't meant to actually say the last part. And he definitely hadn't expected his inner hollow's reaction to be anything like—

Yoruichi was approaching him slowly, a worried look on her face. "Ichigo? You okay?"

Ichigo's scowl returned as he realized that he had come to a dead stop in the middle of a game of tag. "_Great, now she's going to worry, and then we won't get anywhere. How am I going to get out of this one?_"

The answer occurred to him the moment she stepped within ten feet of him. He grinned and, abruptly, he lunged at her. With a single flash step, he was within arm's reach of her.

Thoroughly caught off guard, Yoruichi ducked his first attempt at tagging her, but his second got her squarely on one arm. "Got you!" he called smugly.

Yoruichi laughed. "I never would have thought you were capable of pulling off a trick like that, Ichigo. And who taught you shunpo?"

Ichigo smirked, breathing hard. "Never mind. Are you convinced yet? Can we go?"

Yoruichi nodded, turning and heading towards the ladder that lead up out of the training grounds. "Good enough. Let's get going."

A little surprised that she'd let him off so easily, Ichigo followed quickly after her. Both of them scurried up the ladder.

They got up to the hidden cave just as a wave of spirit energy rocked the area. Renji had just gone to Bankai, which meant he had definitely found Byakuya. With a sudden grim expression, Yoruichi started moving faster, going to a stack of boxes and digging through it until she pulled out a tan cape.

Ichigo easily recognized it. It had helped him get to Rukia last time, its abilities allowing him to fly while he wore it. Seemed to be a trend of Shihouhin items.

"Here, put this on." Yoruichi threw it at him hurriedly. Without questioning, Ichigo threw it around his shoulders and the two of them ran for the cave entrance.

Yoruichi jumped down to the nearest rooftop and began flash stepping. Ichigo followed suit, only without bothering with the rooftops. Thankfully, Yoruichi didn't comment on the fact that Ichigo already knew what the cape did, and the two of them simply ran in silence, heading for the white Tower of Penitence.

At the speeds they were traveling, it didn't take long to reach the bridge that led to the tower's only door. There were a few guards at the door, but they didn't even see what hit them before Yoruichi took them out.

As soon as Ichigo's feet hit wood, he strode towards the door, keeping his senses as open as he could so that nobody could sneak up on them unexpectedly. When he reached it, he banged on it with one fist. "Oi! Rukia, you still in there?"

For a long moment, there was silence. Then, "Ichigo? You idiot! You came back?!"

Ichigo scowled. "Duh! How else am I supposed to save your sorry butt? Get away from the door, we're busting it down."

Yoruichi brushed him aside, examining the door carefully. "It's a pull-up door. Its weakest points are going to be here, where the-"

Ichigo rolled his eyes and unsheathed his sword. "Oh, who cares? This'll get through it. Getsuga..."

Yoruichi sensed what he was about to do and ducked out of his way. "Ichigo, wait!"

Too late. "Tenshou!" Ichigo released his blue energy attack directly at the door. However, instead of blasting a hole in it, as he had anticipated, it ricocheted off, reflecting directly back at him.

Surprised, Ichigo threw himself to the ground as the blast sailed over his head, crashing heavily into the building behind him, tearing a canyon through the center of it. Slowly, the walls that were still standing began to crumble.

It took Ichigo a few seconds to realize what had just happened, and then he groaned to himself. "_Right. It's made of SekiSeki rock. I should have known that. That was stupid._" Pulling himself to his feet again, he braced himself for the lecture that he just knew he was about to get from Yoruichi.

Yoruichi was too busy staring at the now destroyed building to lecture him, though. "What was that? When did you learn that?"

Ichigo scowled again as he suddenly remembered that he hadn't learned his Getsuga Tenshou attack by this point either. More mysteries for Yoruichi to solve.

Thankfully, Rukia interrupted him before he had to explain. "What's going on out there?"

"Ichigo's just blowing himself up," Yoruichi answered dryly. "Word to the wise, Ichigo: never attack SekiSeki rock with energy attacks. It absorbs and deflects spirit energy and-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Ichigo rolled his eyes and went back to the door, inspecting it carefully. It didn't even have so much as a scorch mark on it. He was going to have to do what Yoruichi had been plotting earlier and figure out where he could physically attack it to break it down. "_So, its weak points are..._"

Yoruichi brushed past him again. "Let me take care of this."

"Hey!" Ichigo protested. "I can-"

Yoruichi ignored him, pulling one fist back and holding it there. For a split second, nothing moved; the air itself seemed to freeze. Then, almost faster than Ichigo could see, she shifted position and slammed her whole weight into the punch.

The metal around her hand buckled and gave away, cracking into a spider web pattern that quickly spread to cover the whole door. It stood unsteadily for a moment before simply crumbling around her, leaving the doorway open before them.

Ichigo stared, first at the doorway and then at Yoruichi. Then he scowled again. "Show off."

Yoruichi turned and flashed him a feral grin before stepping halfway into the tower, standing on the rubble from the door. "Okay, Rukia! Door's open!"

Rukia stormed past Yoruichi out the doorway, heading towards Ichigo with an angry expression on her face. "Ichigo! I told you not to come after me! You're going to get yourself killed!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. He'd forgotten about this. Rukia could be so overdramatic at times. "Don't lecture me about coming to rescue you! Didn't I tell you already? I'm not listening to you!"

"You're an idiot!" Rukia emphasized again. "You're still-"

"Yeah, yeah, tell me about it later," Ichigo interrupted her irritably. Without waiting for a protest, he picked her up and slung her over one shoulder. "Come on, we've got to move."

Now the protests came. "I can walk! Put me down! Ichigo!"

Ichigo jumped up onto the railing of the bridge. "Sure, you can walk. But can you fly?" With that, he leapt from the edge and started running. Yoruichi was right behind him, the expression on her face revealing that she was trying to decide whether or not to be annoyed by Rukia's yelling or amused by it.

It didn't take long for Rukia to figure out what direction they were heading, and then her protests grew even louder. "Ichigo, exactly where are you taking me?" she demanded.

Ichigo laughed. "Don't worry, we're going _under_ Soukyoku Hill," he informed her, knowing that she'd seen the large execution stands they were running towards. "There's a cave down there, and-"

His explanation was cut off by a blur appearing on a rooftop almost directly in front of him. Ichigo scowled, gripping Rukia tighter. The blur was shunpo, he knew, and he braced himself for the new arrival.

It was Soi Fon, current captain of 2nd Division and the special forces, and she did not look happy.

Ichigo hesitated, frowning deeply. Soi Fon was on their side in his time. She had given up her posts in the Gotei 13 when Ichigo and his friends had been proclaimed enemies, and the last time Ichigo had seen her, she had been leaving to go on yet another mission with Yoruichi somewhere up north.

She was his ally in his time. Now was a different story. Soi Fon had told him herself once that she had positively hated him during the time he'd broken into Soul Society, and he was sure that she would violently oppose him now.

Thankfully, before he could even think about trying to fight her, Yoruichi shot ahead of him. "Keep Rukia safe!" she ordered him without looking back. She slammed into the now very surprised Soi Fon, taking her down into a nearby grove of trees and clearing the way for Ichigo.

Immediately, Ichigo took off running again, continuing towards the cave beneath Soukyoku Hill.

He didn't get very far, though. On the rooftops all around him, more people blurred into view, surrounding him. Ichigo was forced to come to a dead stop, glancing around and trying to assess his situation.

Directly between him and Soukyoku Hill was the captain of 8th division, Kyoraku Shunsui, and his vice captain. To his left was captain of 4th division, Unohana Retsu, and her vice captain. To his right was the captain commander himself, Yamamoto, and his vice captain. Before he could even think of retreating backwards, Soi Fon's vice captain closed in the gap behind him.

"Ryoka-kun!" Kyoraku called out amiably. "I would advise you to put down Kuchiki-san and step away! We would rather not have to fight you!"

Ichigo nearly smiled. He could believe that, at least for the captains. Unohana was the nicest person he'd ever met, and Kyoraku was probably the laziest. Yamamoto was arrogant (and many other things not worth listing here), and would wait until his allies were near death before he'd even bother lifting a finger to help.

Still, even though Unohana and Kyoraku were his friends in his time, right now they were still under the impression that he was the enemy. Until Aizen revealed himself, he was going to have to avoid them.

At least he wouldn't have to worry about fighting. If he ran, it wasn't likely that any of the captains would follow. If anything, they'd send the vice captains after him, and he already knew that he was fully capable of knocking them out without causing them any permanent damage.

"Rukia, get onto my back," he directed, shifting her around so that he could free up his arms. Wordlessly, she followed his directions as he moved Zangetsu out of her way, unsheathing it. "Sorry, guys. That's not going to happen!" He grinned. "You want Rukia, you're going through me first!"

Rukia finally found her voice again, whispering harshly at him: "Ichigo, you're not planning on fighting them, are you?!"

Ichigo smirked at her over his shoulder. "Like I'd let them just take you back. Of course I'm fighting!"

Kyoraku let out a long sigh, and he reached down to draw both of his swords. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Ryoka-kun. I'm afraid I'll have to kill you."

Rukia gripped his shoulders tightly. "Ichigo..." she trailed off nervously.

Ignoring both of them, Ichigo glanced around. Running was definitely his best option right now. Even if he couldn't get Rukia to Soukyoku hill, he should probably try to figure out where Chad, Ishida, and Inoue were so that they could help him when Aizen revealed his plans. If he wanted to run, though, he would first have to find a way to get around the captains surrounding him.

Unohana's vice captain was the least dangerous person here who would actually fight him, so if he were to duck around that direction and head towards Soukyoku hill from that side, and then maybe he could make it. Except that Kyoraku was a lot faster than he looked; he would probably be able to intercept him on the way, and Ichigo really didn't want to use Bankai just to get enough speed to dodge around him.

Kyoraku was starting towards him now. Ichigo scowled. He was going to have to make a decision quickly. "_Maybe... If I..._"

"_Go up!_" The voice of his inner hollow rang through his head again, sounding urgent.

Ichigo flinched in surprise, gripping Zangetsu tightly. Quickly, he shifted his position to hold his sword at the ready, to hide the sudden movement from the people who couldn't hear the voices in his head. "_What?!_" he shot back instinctively.

"_You've got that cape thing! Fly, you moron!_"

Ichigo blinked as the logic behind that hit him suddenly. Of course! Go up! But his hollow was...

With a blur, Kyoraku was right in front of him, the sword in his right hand swinging towards him. Rukia let out a yell of fear, but Ichigo just ducked, spun to one side, and kicked up off the roof and into the air.

In a moment, he was running again, way too high to be in the reach of any sword, and flash stepping towards Soukyoku hill. The group of captains and vice captains was left in the dust.

Rukia's grip was uncomfortably tight now. "Ichigo, what are you-"

"Shut up, Rukia!" Ichigo growled back at her. "I'm making this up as I go, okay?"

"Oh, that's comforting!" She sounded worried, but she didn't say anything more.

Ichigo sighed in irritation. "Don't worry, I just gotta—Whoa!" He dodged to one side just as a large blast of red energy barreled through the air where he'd been just a split second ago.

As soon as Ichigo had caught his balance again, he looked down, searching the ground for the source of the blast and finding it in Kyoraku, who had sheathed his swords again and was pointing up at him, the tip of one finger still smoking.

Ichigo gaped at him for a moment. "He's shooting kidou at me!" he complained, beginning to run again. Kyoraku easily kept pace with him on the rooftops below him, aiming another blast at him almost lazily.

"Of course! What did you expect? You think they'd just let you go?" Rukia said with exasperation. "Just put me down, and they'll-"

Ichigo just rolled his eyes and kept running, jumping out of the way of kidou blasts whenever he sensed them behind him. "Shut up," he told her again. "I know what I'm doing."

"You're getting yourself killed is what you're doing! Quit worrying about me! Where exactly do you think you can go that they won't find us?"

Ichigo's scowl deepened and he didn't answer her. That was actually a really good question. Even if they were to get to Soukyoku hill now, Kyoraku was way too close for them to be able to get in without him noticing where they'd gone. They'd just end up trapping themselves in the training grounds.

He supposed it didn't matter too much where they went as long as he was able to keep Rukia with him. Then, when Aizen revealed himself, Ichigo would be there, since Rukia was his target. And since Aizen wouldn't be expecting him to be as strong as he currently was, it was possible that he could take him by surprise then.

So, as long as he could just keep dodging kidou blasts long enough for Aizen to decide to make his move, he'd be fine. If he could find his friends, that'd be even better, since they could help him fight, or at least keep Rukia close by him while he fought without putting her in danger.

A shot of red fire whizzed by very close to his head, making Rukia cry out again and forcing him to pay attention. Kyoraku was getting more accurate with his shots, and he was going to have to-

"Ichigo, watch out!" Rukia called hurriedly. At her warning, Ichigo dodged aside, barely avoiding a yellow light he didn't quite recognize.

Ichigo twisted around enough to look down at Kyoraku again as he ran. "What the...? That wasn't attack kidou. That was a lot fast-"

A second yellow blast caught him squarely in the chest. Abruptly, six giant, glowing, yellow rods swooped in. The binding spell quickly pinned his entire body in place; not an inch of him could move. Ichigo growled as he recognized the spell: Bakudo 61, Six Bars of Light.

"Ichigo!" Rukia had her hands around one of the bars now, trying to break it with a feeble attempt at the reverse spell. Kyoraku had come to a stop below them and was pointing up again, starting to chant what sounded like the incantation for the Shot of Red Fire.

Ichigo grit his teeth. He could break the kidou, but being exposed to that much energy might potentially knock Rukia out at this point because of the SekiSeki rock. If she was unconscious, she wouldn't be able to hang on to him and he would have to carry her, which would severely limit his ability to fight.

Still, if he didn't break the kidou, he was going to get blasted. "Rukia, let go of that and hang on to me as tightly as you can," he warned her.

As soon as he felt her arms wrapping around his neck, he started pouring spirit energy into the bars of light, trying to break through them with sheer brute force. For a normal Shinigami, this was a stupid idea that hardly ever worked. Ichigo, however, never had been and never would be a normal Shinigami.

"Come on... Come on..." Ichigo hissed to himself, shoving more energy in. His body began to glow blue from the reiatsu coursing through him, and slowly—too slowly—cracks edged their way through the yellow shafts. Kyoraku was finishing the incantation; any second now, he was going to get hit.

With a yell, Ichigo gave one last push and the spell couldn't take it any more. One bar shattered, followed quickly by each of the other five. There was a huge wave of reiatsu as the spell exploded, and then Ichigo could move again. "Yes!"

As quickly as he could, he whirled around, holding Zangetsu at the ready to guard against Kyoraku's kidou spell.

He needn't have worried, though. Kyoraku had let the spell die away and was currently staring at him, his mouth slightly agape.

"Rukia, you okay?" Ichigo asked, his gaze not leaving his opponent.

There was a mumble of acknowledgement from behind him, and Rukia's grip on his neck tightened briefly. "_Good. She can still hold on._"

Kyoraku straightened suddenly and let out a low whistle. "Wow. That was a level 61 binding spell," he commented. "That's some strong reiatsu you've got there. Most vice captain level Shinigami would have had trouble with that."

Ichigo smirked, breathing heavily. All this running around was finally getting to him. "You'll find I'm much stronger than any vice captain," he informed him.

Kyoraku nodded thoughtfully, and then addressed the air beside him. "Nanao-chan, did you see that? Surely I can't be expected to fight against _that_," he said almost hopefully.

There was a blur of shunpo beside him, and his vice captain appeared. She was bent over double, her breath coming in short gasps as she looked up at Ichigo. One arm was holding a clip board and the other was on her knee, supporting herself. When she had mostly caught her breath, she stood up straight again. "Yes, sir, I saw it. No, sir, I'm afraid you _are_ expected to fight."

Kyoraku sighed heavily, raising one hand to aim at Ichigo again. "That's so sad. Sorry, Ryoka-kun!"

Ichigo laughed. "Well, no one can say you didn't try! Speaking of not fighting me, though, where's Ukitake-san? Isn't he supposed to be helping us rescue Rukia too?"

Once again, Kyoraku's kidou spell died before it even left his fingers, and he stared at Ichigo interestedly. Ichigo could feel Rukia staring at him, too, and Kyoraku's vice captain glanced at her captain unsurely, a look of surprise on her face.

Finally, Kyoraku laughed too, lowering his hand again. "Yeah, he's trying to unlock an old Shihouhin device that can destroy the Soukyoku, and it's taking him a bit long. Looks like we probably won't need it anyway, though."

Ichigo shook his head. "No, that thing needs destroyed anyway. Way too dangerous, and obviously being used stupidly."

Rukia finally found her voice again. "Kyoraku-taichou, you're _helping_ us?!"

Kyoraku tipped his hat at her cheerfully, without answering her.

His vice captain looked perplexed. "Taichou, what are you...?"

"Well, I'm trying to find my friends," Ichigo supplied, ignoring the girl. "I don't suppose you know where they might be? You could chase me over that direction or something."

"I've got a pretty good idea as to where they might be," Kyoraku answered amiably. "Before I say, though, mind sharing how you knew?"

Ichigo grinned. "Call me psychic," he quipped. "Which direction?"

Kyoraku laughed again. "Okay. They were being kept in fourth division's holding cells. If they managed to get out of there, I'd imagine they would start heading towards Soukyoku hill to stop the execution. So they'd be somewhere that way." He gestured.

Ichigo nodded, closing his eyes briefly and trying to sense Chad's spirit energy in that direction. He found it fairly quickly, confirming Kyoraku's words. "All right, thanks. So, back to playing dodge ball in case anyone's watching?"

"Nah, the show was just for old man Yama." Kyoraku shrugged. "I'm not sure that even Juushiro and I working together can take him on; I'm sure not about to try by myself."

"Fair enough." Ichigo dropped from the air to stand beside Kyoraku on the rooftop. "Okay, then, lead the way."

With a smile, Kyoraku turned and began running the direction he had indicated. Keeping a tight grip on Zangetsu in one hand and leaning over slightly so that Rukia would have an easier time hanging on, Ichigo followed him.

Rukia was absolutely baffled. "Ichigo, what's going on?"

"Let's just say there's more people than just me who don't want to see you killed for no reason," Ichigo explained, smirking at her over his shoulder. "Inoue, Chad, and Ishida came to Soul Society with me to rescue you, along with Yoruichi. Ukitake's your captain, so of course he's helping; and Kyoraku's friends with Ukitake, so he talked him into it. Toushiro's trying to appeal to the Central 46 right now. Kenpachi and a few others from 11th division are fighting somewhere, too. And there's Hanatarou, of course, and then Renji is currently fighting your brother."

Rukia's voice was filled with emotion. "So many people... are fighting for me?"

Ichigo laughed. "Duh. Like it or not, you've got friends, Rukia. Now shut up and help me look for them."

"But why do you care?" Rukia continued anyway, wiping away angry tears. "I got you into all this trouble. I'm not worth getting cut up for."

Ichigo's amusement faded immediately and he glared at her. "I think I'm the one who gets to decide who I get cut up for, Midget! Look, I don't care what you think you-"

His rant got cut off when a giant wave of spirit energy rocked over everyone, bringing them all to a stop again. Ichigo's head whipped around and he peered into the distance, focusing on the energy. That was...

Rukia gasped in disbelief. "Renji!"

Renji's spirit energy had just spiked dramatically, and then fallen to nearly nothing, his Bankai fading away as he lost the ability to maintain it. The battle was over. Byakuya would be heading this way now.

"Hand Rukia-chan over here," Kyoraku suggested grimly. "If Kuchiki-san shows up, you'll need to fight. Nanao-chan can get Rukia-chan safely away from here."

Ichigo shook his head. "I need her with me. Nanao should go help Renji. You go find my friends and bring them here. I'll deal with Byakuya until then."

"Ichigo," Rukia warned. "You can't just-"

"I can and I will. Hang on." He gripped Zangetsu's hilt in both hands, holding it ready in front of him.

Kyoraku looked somewhat doubtful of his choice in plans, but turned back towards the direction that Ichigo's friends would be. "All right Nanao-chan. Time is better spent moving than arguing, you know."

His vice captain nodded, and they both took off in different directions.

"Ichigo, this is stupid," Rukia said again. "Byakuya-niisama will kill you! Especially if you're trying to carry me too!"

Ichigo just shook his head again. "I can take care of Byakuya," he promised. "You just worry about hanging on."

Rukia's worried expression didn't change. "Nobody can stand against him; even his Shikai is too powerful! What are you going to do if he uses Bankai?"

Ichigo smirked. "Then I'll use _my_ Bankai. Rukia, quit worrying about me already."

She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, Byakuya arrived in a blur of shunpo. Ichigo tensed, getting Zangetsu back into a ready position and waiting for Byakuya to make the first move.

At first Byakuya just watched him silently, his eyes narrowing at what he saw. Ichigo noted with satisfaction that the 6th division captain was already showing signs of tiring, and his black uniform was a little cut up. There was blood splashed in a few spots on his captain's cloak, and although Ichigo suspected that most of it was Renji's, at least some of it had to be his.

"_Perfect. He hasn't had time to recover from fighting Renji this time around. I should be able to wear him down pretty quickly, so I can finish this and still have energy left for fighting Aizen._"

"_Don't be so arrogant, stupid,_" his inner hollow warned him suddenly. "_You're tired, too._"

Ichigo scowled. "_Not as tired as last time,_" he shot back without thinking.

"Kurosaki Ichigo," Byakuya interrupted his thoughts. "I see you still insist on pursuing this foolish mission. I suggest you put Rukia down."

"Not likely!" Ichigo called back.

Rukia's grip was uncomfortably tight. "Ichigo, don't!" she repeated.

Byakuya ignored her protest and continued watching Ichigo, drawing his sword. "Then I shall have to cut you both down. Shire, Senbonzakura."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed, his whole body tense as he watched Byakuya's sword shatter from the top down into hundreds of shimmering pink blades.

"No!" Rukia screamed as they all suddenly shot towards them in a whirlwind of destruction. Ichigo winced at that, and then proceeded to duck around the swarm, occasionally using Zangetsu to knock a few out of the air.

Byakuya wasn't taking him seriously at all, yet, so his attack was slow and moving in a predictable pattern. Having Rukia on his back slowed Ichigo down, too, but dodging was still only a matter of figuring out the rhythm and dancing around them. Soon, he was right beside Byakuya and bringing Zangetsu down directly at his head.

Byakuya's sword reformed into his hands just in time to block the attack, the metal ringing together as the two blades connected, sending sparks flying between them.

Ichigo smirked. "Don't treat me so lightly," he goaded. "Is this all you've got?"

"You are far too arrogant, Kurosaki Ichigo," Byakuya intoned. He shoved hard against Ichigo's blade, forcing some distance between the two of them. "I have no need to use my full strength against one like you."

"Sorry you feel that way!" Ichigo laughed. "I'll take you down at this strength, then."

With that, he lunged at Byakuya again, adding in a quick shunpo so that he could get around behind him in a mimic of Byakuya's own signature move. He knew that Byakuya could follow him, and so he was ready when he countered deftly, turning to face Ichigo as he moved around him.

What Byakuya wasn't expecting, however, was the energy blast that Ichigo was adding to his attack. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

The blast just barely missed him, flying right past his left shoulder as he ducked out of the way. Ichigo immediately swung a second time, using Byakuya's surprise against him to score a hit across one arm.

Byakuya recovered enough to block Ichigo's third blow, and then he jumped back away from him, holding his sword out in front of him defensively.

"What kind of an attack was that?" he asked calmly, obviously trying to hide the fact that he was breathing hard now.

Ichigo smirked. He didn't have time to explain all of his moves all over again. "Wouldn't you like to know?" he shot back. "Hang on tight, Rukia."

Silently, she gripped his neck harder, but before Ichigo could move to attack again, there came a call from below.

"Kurosaki-kun!"

Ichigo looked down and grinned. Running towards him, waving madly, was Inoue, followed closely by Chad, Ishida, and Kyoraku, along with that one 11th squad guy they'd picked up whose name Ichigo couldn't remember just now.

Quickly, he turned and flashed stepped down to them. "Thank goodness you're here. Chad, take Rukia."

Chad nodded solemnly and reached out to take her. Rukia protested. "I can walk!"

"No, you can't," Ichigo told her as he passed her over. "Don't argue. It's okay, I'll deal with this."

"I'll take care of her," Chad promised, cradling her in one arm. Rukia scowled, but didn't say anything about it.

Ichigo smirked at her. "Okay. Stay close, but not too close," he warned. He didn't want Rukia caught up in the fighting at this point, and he was glad that his friends were there so that he didn't have to worry about her.

Without another word, he turned back to Byakuya and flash stepped back up onto the rooftops.

Byakuya was watching him expressionlessly. "You're wasting your time," he informed Ichigo.

Ichigo laughed. "You think you can take me down? Bring it on, Byakuya."

"You are far too arrogant," Byakuya scoffed. "Fine, then. I will destroy you before your head gets any bigger than it already is."

With that, he held up his sword, blade pointed down, and let it drop.

Ichigo's amusement faded. Byakuya was picking _now_ to go to Bankai? Why now, and not before? The last time he'd fought Byakuya, he'd gone to Bankai right after he'd showed him his Getsuga Tenshou attack. What was different this time?

Rukia. Ichigo smirked again. Of course. He'd had Rukia on his back this time, and Byakuya hadn't wanted to hit her unintentionally. So, he'd already had his doubts about this execution, then, even before Ichigo had fought him. Good to know.

Byakuya's Bankai rose silently from the ground—hundreds of blades that then simultaneously shattered into pieces. "Bankai. Shire, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."

Dodging off to the side to avoid Byakuya's initial attack, Ichigo thrust Zangetsu forward, holding it parallel to the ground, and let the hilt wrap twist around his arm, channeling his spirit energy into the blade.

"Bankai!" There was a flash of light and a cloud of smoke and dust as Ichigo's Bankai formed, leaving him holding Zangetsu's black katana form and wearing his black coat. The flying cape that Yoruichi gave him blew off, which was all right; the speed his Bankai gave him was nearly like flying anyway.

"Tensa Zangetsu."

Byakuya was staring at him in surprise, his pink blades swirling in the air around him. "Did you say Bankai? Impossible."

Ichigo grinned. "You heard me. And this time, I'm not wasting time playing fair. Let's go!"

He knew that with Byakuya still underestimating him, he had enough speed to easily get under all of his defenses. The last time, he'd stopped with his blade at Byakuya's throat and then backed off, trying to get him to fight all out. This time, he was going down right now.

Before Byakuya could even blink, Ichigo was beside him and Zangetsu was slicing across his left side and up one arm. Not enough of a wound to kill, obviously—He needed him alive later—but enough to cause him extreme pain.

To Ichigo's surprise, Byakuya ignored the wound. His face registered shock as he flash stepped back away from him, but other than gripping his side with one hand, he remained totally focused, moving his other arm up to direct his blades in a counterattack.

Ichigo moved easily out of the way of the swarm, but he was careful now. Byakuya would definitely be taking him seriously now, at least enough that he needed to pay close attention to his actions.

A flash of white-blue light distracted him briefly, and he turned to look back down at his friends. Grimly, he noted that the other vice captains had finally caught up with them and that his friends were now fighting.

They were holding their own pretty well. Chad's attacks were not in the least weakened by the fact that he was still holding Rukia, and the light from the energy blasts had been what had caught Ichigo's eye. Already, one of the vice captains was out for the count, his released zanpakutou shattered by a punch.

Inoue was doing her best to help as well, maintaining a shield in front of Chad while Tsubaki zoomed around, trying to find a good angle of attack on the other vice captain. Ishida and the 11th squad guy were hanging back, looking as though they wanted to help, but couldn't think of a good way to.

Kyoraku, for his part, was doing nothing other than cheering the others on. Ichigo decided that he must be trying to conserve strength for fighting Yamamoto and was, therefore, waiting for Ukitake to show up.

Suddenly, the air all around him was one massive blur of pink. Ichigo whirled, dismayed to find that while he'd been distracted, Byakuya had completely surrounded him.

Moving as fast as he could, Ichigo began batting away each of Byakuya's thousands of blades as they came at him. A few of them ended up getting past his defenses and they swooped in to inflict deep cuts across his shoulders, but for the most part, Ichigo was able to knock them all out of the air.

Ichigo ignored the pain from the cuts and focused back on Byakuya again, dashing in to try a close range attack. Byakuya was ready for him, the mass of pink rising to form a solid shield between them.

As he attempted wildly to weave his way around all of Byakuya's blades, Ichigo mentally yelled at himself for having become distracted in the first place. Hadn't he just told himself that he needed to focus on this? Why was his attention so hazy?

"_Let me take over!_" his inner hollow broke into his thoughts urgently.

Ichigo flinched. "_No! No, not this again, no!_" He jerked back away from Byakuya, putting a large distance between the two of them so that he could concentrate on this new problem.

His hollow was intent on forcing Ichigo to listen to him. "_I can fight him! You know I can!_"

Ichigo brought one hand up to his face, clenching his fist as he attempted to push the hollow down. He knew the hollow was weaker than him; it should have been easy. But for some reason, controlling it was a struggle now.

Seeming somewhat confused and angry by his sudden efforts, his hollow pushed back. "_Come on, you idiot! I have no idea what this Aizen guy is capable of and you do! You need to save your strength for that! Leave Byakuya to me!_"

"_No!_" Ichigo grit his teeth, fully aware that his spirit energy was fluctuating crazily as he and his hollow shoved at each other. Byakuya was keeping his distance, trying to figure out from there what was going on. "_Not again! Not this time!_"

"_I'm not going to kill him,_" the hollow argued exasperatedly. "_I heard you say you need him later. What's the big problem?_"

Before Ichigo could stop them, several memories surfaced one after another of their own accord, almost too quickly to even note: His hollow taking over during his original battle with Byakuya, the subsequent fight for control, the long weeks without using his Shinigami powers in a sad attempt to keep his hollow from gaining control, facing his hollow at last in the basement of the Vaizard's hideout, and finally, a memory strong enough that it lingered in his mind long enough to really be seen:

* * *

In a small back room of a hastily set up emergency shelter, Ichigo was trying desperately to get some sleep. Both of his little sisters were curled up against him, their heads in his lap. They were already in a fitful sleep, clinging tightly to him, but no matter how he tried, he just couldn't.

Every time he closed his eyes, images of Karakura town's recent destruction flashed through his mind, overpowering all of his senses. There was no room in his head for logical thought; all of it was blocked out with multitudes of what ifs. Could he have somehow prevented this?

His musings were cut short by a sharp knock on the door followed immediately by it opening. Renji and Rukia both came hurrying into the room.

Ichigo blinked up at them. "Wha...?"

"Ichigo, we've got to move, now," Renji snapped at him. "Come on. Bring your sisters."

Confused, Ichigo looked to Rukia, but she was already on the opposite side of the room, pulling open the door to a small closet where bundles of supplies had been shoved. She grabbed a couple of them and slid one across the floor to where Ichigo was sitting.

When she realized that he wasn't moving, she glared at him. "What part of 'move now' don't you get?"

"What's going on?" Ichigo asked with a frown. "Aizen isn't attacking again already, is he?"

Renji scooped Yuzu and Karin up into his arms. They were tired enough that even with Renji's rough handling, neither of them woke. "No, it's not Aizen," he reported. "Worse. We just got our orders from Soul Society. There's a kill-on-sight order issued for you."

Ichigo scrambled to his feet in surprise. "There's a _what_?!" he demanded.

"Kill-on-sight," Rukia confirmed somberly, slinging another emergency pack at him. "You, the other Vaizard, all of the Arrancar—regardless of whether or not they're still helping Aizen—and, of course, any Shinigami or human allying themselves with any of the above."

Ichigo stared at her. "But... But I'm one of their best fighters! And none of them would still be _alive_ if the Vaizard hadn't showed up when they did! Not to mention what Grimmjow and Nell have been doing for us! Why would they do this?"

Renji laughed bitterly. "Why does Yamamoto issue any of his stupid orders? Why execute Rukia? Why forbid us from rescuing Inoue? Who knows?"

"The official reason is that since Vaizard and Arrancar are part hollow, that they absolutely cannot be trusted," Rukia mentioned. "They're using your hollow's attack on Ishida as proof."

A wave of guilt washed over Ichigo, followed immediately by anger. "T-they can't do that! I lost control _once_, and they're going to-"

Renji cut him off. "To be fair, I doubt that most of the Gotei 13 is actually going to follow the orders. Regardless, those few who _do_ want to kill you know that you're here, so we need to move. Now."

Rukia nodded, heading out the door. "Come on. Ishida's going with his father, but Chad and Inoue are coming with us. Urahara says that he knows where the Vaizard retreated to, so we're all going to-"

* * *

"Ichigo, watch out!" Rukia's scream, along with movement out of the corner of Ichigo's eye, drew his attention back to the present. He threw himself sideways, dodging an attack from Byakuya's swarm of blades.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, your movements are becoming quite slow," Byakuya commented, not pressing the attack further. Obviously, he hadn't been trying to kill with that blow, just trying to snap Ichigo out of his daze. Typical chivalrous Byakuya.

Breathing heavily, Ichigo forced the sudden flashbacks out of his mind, trying to concentrate on the fight at hand. That was then; this was now. That was _not_ going to happen again. He'd take Aizen down first.

His inner hollow was uncharacteristically quiet, having stopped pushing at Ichigo the moment the memory rush came. Grateful for the lull in his inner battle, at least, Ichigo took the opportunity to focus further on what was happening outside.

The fight down below with Ichigo's friends and the vice captains seemed to have come to a standstill. Kyoraku was talking with the only one still standing, the girl who was Unohana's vice captain, apparently trying to convince her not to fight them.

Byakuya was standing several rooftops away, his blades hovering around him, waiting for a response of some sort from Ichigo.

Ichigo smirked at him, trying to regain his composure. "Sorry," he called. "Looks like I'll have to speed up a bit!"

The swarm of blades swirled around Byakuya faster in preparation for a whirlwind attack of some kind. "Your arrogance, at least, continues to have no limit," he quipped lightly. "Your body, however, seems to be incapable of keeping up with your tongue."

Ichigo glared. "We'll just see about that."

With that, he lunged at Byakuya, twisting around as he moved to avoid the worst of Byakuya's whirlwind, and knocking down the rest with Zangetsu. Quickly, he got into range of Byakuya himself and attacked again, holding a Getsuga Tenshou onto his blade so that the energy attack could enhance his original slicing motion.

Byakuya was apparently surprised that Ichigo was still able to fight effectively, because Ichigo was able to catch him while his guard was down. A deep gash was carved across Byakuya's left shoulder before he could get away and counter attack.

Ichigo ducked around and went at him again, trying to get as many hits out of Byakuya's shock as he could. He wasn't able to get many, and he took a few blows himself from Byakuya's counters, but by the end of the exchange, both of them were sporting several new wounds.

Byakuya wasn't slowing, though. Before Ichigo really had time to recover, he was attacking again, his swarms of blades coming at him ferociously.

Ichigo scowled, flash stepping back to avoid them and almost getting severely nicked. These near misses were getting annoying.

Just as he was about to express this, Byakuya interrupted him, speaking sternly. "Why do you continue trying to rescue Rukia? You know that this attempt is useless."

"Why keep trying?" Ichigo asked incredulously. "That's a stupid question. Just because _you_ can't keep your promise to Hisana doesn't mean that the rest of us aren't going to fulfill the promises we've made!"

Byakuya froze, his attacks falling away completely. "What did you say?" he let out in a harsh whisper.

Ichigo nearly smacked himself in irritation. He just kept doing this; spouting off information that he had no right to know. Byakuya had never mentioned this to anyone; it was anyone's guess what his reaction to this would be.

Thankfully, before he had to come up with a response of any sort, another commotion from below drew both of their attentions. Glancing down, Ichigo was somewhat relieved to note that Ukitake had finally arrived.

With two captains in the area, as well as Ukitake's two third seats, Unohana's vice captain quickly changed her mind about fighting them. It probably helped that one of the two third seats was the vice captain's sister.

Kyoraku sent Ichigo a thumbs up. "Ryoka-kun! We're going to head up to Soukyoku Hill! Good luck!"

Byakuya sent Kyoraku a distasteful look, but the other captain just ignored it. Kyoraku, Ukitake, and the three other Shinigami turned and flash stepped away, leaving Ichigo's friends standing by themselves, Chad still hanging on to Rukia. The 11th squad guy from before seemed to have backed off, because he was nowhere to be seen.

Ichigo smirked at Byakuya, suddenly getting an idea. "You don't have to fight me, Byakuya. She's your sister. She's your responsibility. And she did nothing wrong. Help us."

Byakuya glared at him, raising one hand to continue his attacks. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know exactly what I'm talking about," Ichigo countered. "Help us, Byakuya. If not for Rukia's sake, then for Hisana's."

All this accomplished was making Byakuya furious. "How dare you?" he seethed, sending another wave at Ichigo, which he barely managed to dodge. "Do not presume to meddle in things that do not concern you, Kurosaki Ichigo."

Okay, so, persuasion using foreknowledge of past events wasn't going to help him here. He was going to have to resort back to disabling him, hopefully more effectively than his previous attempts.

With a scowl, Ichigo ran at Byakuya again, this time dashing around him in circles, going faster and faster and faster, until even he could have sworn there were multiple versions of him running around.

Byakuya didn't react much, merely moving both hands to direct his blades into the circle that Ichigo had created. Very quickly, Ichigo was forced to drop the run-around tactic so that he could dodge around Byakuya's swift counter attack.

He was getting increasingly frustrated at Byakuya's refusal to tire. It wasn't fair; he wasn't nearly this difficult to fight the first time around! He was supposed to be stronger this time! What had gone wrong?

He had attempted this too early, he realized grimly, still ducking Byakuya's continued attacks. The time travel had taken way more out of him than he'd originally anticipated. He should have waited until Rukia's execution had actually started before he went to rescue her, to give himself more time to recover.

Then, he would have actually had a better idea of where everyone important was, as well. As it was, he had no idea where Aizen actually was at the moment. Or Gin and Tousen, for that matter.

Too late for that. Now, he had to deal with the decisions he'd made. He could still take Byakuya. And if he did it fast enough, he could still have time to rest before trying to take on Aizen.

Determinedly, Ichigo put on another burst of speed, trying his best to get around behind Byakuya so that he could disable him more effectively. Byakuya seemed to have anticipated this, because he whirled around and pointed directly at Ichigo's shoulder. "Byakurai," he intoned softly.

Ichigo's eyes widened as the white lightning kidou, Byakuya's favorite spell, which he totally should have anticipated, blasted through his right shoulder.

Shaking from the electricity still running through his body, Ichigo jerked back away from Byakuya, shooting off a haphazard Getsuga Tenshou blast in his general direction to keep him from continuing to attack.

Seeming to ignore this, Byakuya was suddenly right beside him, grabbing hold of the front of Ichigo's coat and pulling him abruptly upright. "Before I kill you, tell me. Who told you the name Hisana?" he hissed dangerously.

Ichigo forced himself to smirk. "You did," he shot at him. Before Byakuya could figure out what that was supposed to mean, Ichigo shoved him away, twisting to make him let go of his clothing. Then, he flash stepped away to put several yards of distance between them.

He faced Byakuya again with a grin. "I'm not going down that easily, Byakuya!"

Byakuya's eyes narrowed. "Say what you will. I'm finishing this right now."

He held up one hand, and all of the pink blades began to gather to one spot above him, whirling around his hand to create what seemed almost like a massive, moving ceiling above his head.

Magic crackled through the mass, causing the air around him to grow dark. Ichigo tensed. Byakuya was shifting to one of the other forms of his Bankai. He had about three of them. The question was, which one was he going to have to deal with now?

The darkness around him spread as the already large cloud of blades seemed to grow even larger, casting the area into shadow. Ichigo held Zangetsu ready, fairly sure now which version this was. This was going to get interesting.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue yelled suddenly, her voice sounding panicked.

Ichigo's head whipped around as he searched frantically for his friends. Finally, he spotted them a large distance away on the street below. Chad had obviously been firing off more of his punches, because there was a lot of smoke, and Inoue had her shielding up.

The smoke cleared, revealing that his friends' opponent was completely untouched. Ichigo's eyes widened as he recognized him: Kaname Tousen. One of Aizen's followers.

Immediately, Ichigo turned and started flash stepping towards them, trying to get over there as quickly as he could. Byakuya yelled something at him, but Ichigo ignored it. He had to get over there now.

Tousen threw one hand up in the air, holding onto the end of a thick, white ribbon, which began to twist itself around the group. Inoue's Tsubaki slammed into it, trying to cut through, but it did nothing.

Ichigo panicked. That was a Kidou transportation spell! That was going to take them to Aizen! He was going to miss them!

He put on an extra burst of speed. He had to make it! He had to!

At the last minute before the white ribbon completely cocooned the group, Ichigo managed to slip into the circle, reaching out and grabbing hold of the first person he came across.

There was a loud whoosh noise followed by the dizzying feeling of being moved very fast, and then everything stopped. The white ribbon fell away, slowly revealing their new location: Soukyoku Hill.

Ichigo glanced around quickly, trying to get his bearings in case he needed to fight right away.

The Soukyoku itself was still intact. Obviously Ukitake and Kyoraku hadn't gotten here yet. They must have been intercepted on the way.

The only people in the area were Ichigo, his friends, and Tousen, and of course Aizen and Ichimaru Gin, who were now walking towards them purposefully. Nobody else was in sight. Aizen had them right where he wanted them.

Ichigo scowled. Aizen was looking just as smug as he remembered. As always, it was impossible to tell exactly what he was thinking as he scanned the group.

After a moment of silence, Aizen smiled amiably at them. "Hello. I don't believe most of us have met before. I should introduce myself to you." He stopped and gave them a small bow, holding his hands spread out by his sides. "I am Aizen Sousuke, captain of fifth division."

"Traitor to Soul Society," Ichigo bit out hatefully.

Aizen looked mildly surprised, but then his smile grew. "You could say that. But then, that makes us on the same side, does it not? Ryoka-kun, please put down Kuchiki Rukia and step aside."

Ichigo held Zangetsu at the ready, standing between Aizen and Chad. "Hang on to her, Chad. Don't let go," he instructed.

Chad nodded solemnly, gripping Rukia tighter. Inoue and Ishida put themselves in front of him, keeping Ichigo in the front, but making sure there was another solid barrier or two keeping Aizen and his group away from Rukia.

"Aya..." Gin sighed, the creepy smile on his face not fading. He held both hands up in the air in an over-exaggerated shrug. "Looks like they're not gunna make it easy on us, Aizen-sama."

Aizen's gaze remained fixed on Ichigo. "I see." Slowly, he unsheathed his sword, beginning to walk towards them again. "Pity."

Ichigo tensed, trying to prepare himself for anything. Aizen was deceptively fast, he knew. Even though Aizen seemed to be quite some distance from them now, he had to be ready.

Aizen moved. Ichigo swung, trying to intercept him. If he was going that way, it meant he was planning on attacking from behind, so—

No, he wasn't attacking Ichigo at all!

Too late, Ichigo whirled around. He was only just in time to see Inoue and Ishida sent flying by the surprise attack, too taken off guard to do anything to stop him. Chad began powering up a punch, but it was no use; Aizen was already on him, slicing a deep gash across his chest. Chad didn't let go of Rukia, merely taking the hit with a grunt, sliding backwards from the force.

"Chad!" Ichigo yelled. Angrily, he threw himself at Aizen, swinging wildly. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

The attack never left the blade. Aizen reached up without even turning around and stopped Zangetsu mid-swing with a single finger. With a crackle of unused energy, the Getsuga Tenshou fizzled out.

Ichigo stared in disbelief. He was faster this time! How could Aizen still have anticipated that? Why had this happened again?

Aizen smirked at him, letting his current situation fully sink in before turning and swinging with his own blade, fully intent on cutting Ichigo completely in half.

Thankfully, Ichigo was at least expecting that much, and he leapt out of the way, narrowly avoiding getting hit. Still shaken, he backed off, trying to regain his balance for another attempt.

Aizen apparently didn't see him as much of a threat. He sheathed his sword, turned away and walked back to where Chad was now kneeling on the ground, clutching his chest with the hand not holding Rukia.

Reaching down, he grabbed the red collar Rukia was wearing and, with his other hand, shoved hard against Chad. To Ichigo's surprise and horror, Chad fell backwards, lying on the ground without moving and leaving Aizen holding Rukia up in the air.

"No!" In a burst of outrage, Ichigo ran at Aizen again. He knew that Aizen was fast, but he also knew his style by now. Right before he reached Aizen, he leapt sideways and ducked under where he knew that Aizen would be blocking him and swung hard.

There was a sound of metal against metal, and sparks flew up in Ichigo's face. Quickly, he moved away from Aizen, trying to determine what had just happened.

Ichigo scowled, realizing that his attack only hadn't worked because Aizen had partially activated that weird green-hand thing that he had used before to forcefully pull the Hougyoku from Rukia's soul. Part of the device was apparently a strong Kidou shield that surrounded the two of them.

Aizen smirked at him briefly. "You are quite persistent," he noted with some amusement. "But slow."

Ichigo grit his teeth, his hand tightening on Zangetsu's hilt. It would be no use to attack him, now. If he interrupted the kidou on that device, it might end up not working properly, and then it might kill Rukia when Aizen used it. "Rukia!" he called out in frustration.

Rukia looked terrified, still trying to figure out exactly what was going on. "A-Aizen-taichou?" she stammered. "W-what?"

Aizen smiled at her almost comfortingly. "I apologize for not explaining myself properly, Rukia-chan. Kaname, Gin, if you could perhaps make sure we can talk without interruptions?"

Ichigo tensed, but apparently it was his friends that Aizen was more worried about. Chad, who had by now propped himself up on one arm, suddenly found Gin's sword at his throat, preventing him from moving.

Inoue and Ishida were being held up in the air by the backs of their stolen shinigami uniforms by Tousen. Both of them struggled, protesting loudly, but neither of them could move either.

Angrily, Ichigo returned his attention to Aizen. "What are you trying to accomplish, Aizen?"

"Merely informing Rukia-chan, here, exactly how useful she has been to me," Aizen said cheerfully, with a glance at Ichigo. "Having been sent here by Urahara, I'm sure you already know this full well. However, a bit of information might do Rukia-chan some good. I suggest you listen well, too."

Ichigo scowled, but said nothing. At this point, he really had no choice. He couldn't attack Aizen, and he couldn't help his friends, either. If he went to Chad, Tousen would kill Ishida and Inoue. If he went to them, Gin would kill Chad. Ichigo couldn't move any more than they could.

Aizen took his silence as a yes. "Good. Now, as you may or may not be aware, there is a limit to the amount of strength that any one Shinigami can attain. He may become a master in all four areas that Shinigami train in—sword play, hand to hand, footwork, and kidou—but at that point, he has to stop. There is no way to become stronger. At least, not as far as Soul Society's rules are concerned."

He smiled maliciously and continued. "There is one way to breach that limit, to make the ability to become stronger completely boundless. That way is the erasing of the line between Shinigami and Hollow: the creation of a hybrid. The idea has existed in theory for a long time, but no one has ever made any sort of breakthrough. No one... except for Urahara Kisuke."

That statement achieved various gasps from amongst Ichigo's friends as they realized what Aizen was getting at. Ichigo merely continued to glare at him hatefully.

Aizen waited patiently for their attention again, and then he went on. "Urahara created a device unlike any other previously created; one that instantly dissolved the barrier between Shinigami and Hollow. It is a powerful device known as the Hougyoku, or Orb of Distortion. A device which he has hidden within your soul, Kuchiki Rukia."

Rukia's eyes, previously narrowed with suspicion, widened in shock as that sunk in. "Hidden in my soul?" she gasped.

Aizen nodded amiably. "Not only that, but he also gave you a gigai created specifically to destroy spiritual energy, rather like SekiSeki rock does. It would have eventually turned you into a normal human. He never meant to help you; he meant to use and destroy you so that he could completely conceal the location of the Hougyoku."

Expressions of hurt and betrayal shadowed across Rukia's face as she tried to take in the information.

Inoue outright protested it. "You're lying! Urahara-san wouldn't do something as horrible as that! I met him! He's nice!"

"Nice?" Aizen affected a surprised look. "Hardly. His actions seem like rather cruel tricks to play on those he called friends, yes, but it's true nonetheless."

Ichigo growled low, gritting his teeth. "Don't listen to him. He's just playing mind games."

Aizen merely smiled at Ichigo, as if to say he was wasting his time. He was nearly right, too. While Urahara was most definitely their friend, Ichigo couldn't outright deny a single one of Aizen's claims against him.

"Don't worry, Rukia-chan. The gigai has already been disposed of, and I plan to remove the Hougyoku now. Hold still."

Before she could protest, Aizen lifted her higher, raised his free hand and activated the rest of the spell, causing his hand to become monstrous-looking and green. Without hesitation, he plunged it deep within her chest.

"Kuchiki-san!" Inoue cried in horror. Ishida and Chad looked equally disgusted. Ichigo's expression set in a hard line as he watched, hoping beyond all hopes that this worked the same way it had before.

Slowly, Aizen drew out the Hougyoku, a small, blue ball encased in clear white kidou barriers. As soon as he had it free, he released the spell, lowered Rukia to the ground, and examined his prize. "I'm surprised. It's rather small." He grinned. "So this... is the Hougyoku."

Ichigo was watching Rukia carefully as the spell dissipated. She still looked completely shocked and dazed, but the gaping hole in her chest was closing up. She was going to be okay.

Aizen seemed to notice this as well, and he glanced down at her with some surprise, stashing the Hougyoku away in his uniform. "Oh? And you are completely unharmed. Marvelous technology."

Right, well, now that the spell was done with, Ichigo could at least make an attempt to get Rukia away from Aizen. First, he'd have to do something about his friends. How was he going to manage this?

Aizen seemed to have his own plans. Reaching down, he picked up Rukia by her collar again. She remained totally limp. "Unfortunately," Aizen said almost sadly, "I have no more use for you. Gin, kill her."

Gin glanced down at Chad and contemplated him for a moment, probably trying to interpret his suddenly mixed orders. He apparently decided not to kill Chad, because he withdrew the sword from his throat and pointed it at Rukia. "Ah, well, can't be helped. Shoot to kill, Shinsou."

At once, Ichigo moved, flash stepping as fast as he could and snatching Rukia out of Aizen's grasp, narrowly avoiding Gin's sword himself as it extended towards him. At the same time, Chad leapt to his feet and powered up a punch, aiming it at Tousen's midsection. Tousen went flying, dropping his two captives.

Just like that, Ichigo and all his friends were out of immediate danger, Ichigo with Rukia slung over one shoulder, and Chad carrying Inoue and Ishida.

Aizen smiled. "Nicely executed," he complimented. Gin grinned at them as well, sealing his sword again and sheathing it. Tousen picked himself up off the ground, looking unscathed by Chad's attack.

Ichigo's eyes narrowed. Aizen had to have known that this would open Ichigo up to move against him. There was no reason for him to have Gin do this except to purposefully incite a fight. Why would he do that? To entertain him while he waited for the Menos to pick him up, maybe?

No time to think about that now. With the Hougyoku already with Aizen, he was no longer going to focus on Rukia and would instead work on taking down the strongest fighter there: him.

Before Aizen could make his move, Ichigo flash stepped to Chad's side, just as he was putting Inoue and Ishida back on their feet. Quickly, he passed Rukia off to Chad again. "You guys get out of here. I'll hold them off."

Ishida dusted himself off somewhat indignantly. "That's not going to work, Kurosaki," he pointed out. "After that, do you really think they'll just let us leave?"

Chad apparently agreed. "We should stay and help you fight," he stated, shifting Rukia into a more comfortable position. "We're stronger together."

Ichigo scowled. "I don't want you guys getting hurt any more."

Ishida just scoffed. "And you honestly think this will be any different if they kill you first and then come after us?"

"Kurosaki-kun, you're hurt, too," Inoue pleaded with him. "Don't try to fight alone."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "I'll be fine. If you lot stick together, you should be able to get away while I hold them off."

"Quit being stubborn and let us help fight, Kurosaki!" Ishida demanded.

"And what exactly are _you_ going to do?" Ichigo shot back. "You can't fight right now. And while Inoue can-"

Ishida interrupted him, his expression changing suddenly to one of suspicion. "What do you mean, I can't fight?!"

Ichigo frowned at him, a little thrown off by this. "You fought Kurotsuchi, right? You lost your Quincy powers?"

Ishida stared at him in shock. "How...?"

Abruptly, it occurred to Ichigo that he wasn't supposed to know that yet. It hadn't been till Inoue had pointed it out weeks after this that it had even crossed his mind before.

Scowling, Ichigo pushed on. "How I know is beside the point. You can't fight. Inoue can't either. If she uses her shields and Chad attacks anyone who comes near, you should be able to-"

Chad shook his head, resting his free hand lightly on his wounded chest. "Ichigo. They're too fast for me. We need to work together."

Ishida agreed, still looking disconcerted by Ichigo's random foreknowledge. "If there was just one of them, that'd be one thing. You're not going to be able to fight all three of them."

Ichigo's scowl deepened. He hated to admit it, but they were right. Still. "Got any better ideas?" he growled. "None of you are in good enough condition to fight, and-"

"Neither are you, Ichigo," Rukia pointed out dryly, looking worriedly at him. "I'm surprised you're still standing!"

"I'm not hearing any better suggestions!" Ichigo let out in frustration. "If we just stand here, they'll kill us all!"

Ishida frowned. "Calm down, Kurosaki. Your yelling isn't helping."

"Look, if you don't-"

"Aya... So upsettin' to hear such arguin' amongst friends, ne, Aizen-taichou?" Gin sighed dramatically.

Ichigo glanced over to see Aizen smiling at him, with Tousen and Gin standing close by on either side. "Quite," Aizen agreed with Gin's statement. "We should end this now."

"Good idea." Gin grinned creepily and drew his short zanpakutou again, dropping down into a crouch with the tip of his blade pointed directly towards them.

Moving without even thinking, Ichigo darted forward and slammed Zangetsu against the blade of Gin's sword even as he was opening his mouth to release it, forcing Gin to focus on him instead of his friends. Gin reacted immediately, turning to swing at Ichigo.

He ducked the blow and flash stepped around to the other side of him, attacking again. Gin deflected the attack fairly easily, merely bringing his arm around to match Ichigo's location and flicking Zangetsu off to the side. A quick slash then left a shallow cut across Ichigo's arm as he tried and failed to twist away.

Ichigo scowled. He couldn't get too far away from Gin, or else he'd just release his sword for a distance attack. But he couldn't get too close, either—Gin's sword was a wakizashi, a short sword designed specifically for close combat.

Behind him, Chad had handed Rukia over for Ishida to carry piggy-back, and the group was struggling to defend against Tousen's attacks. Only Inoue's shields were managing to hold him back even a little.

Tsubaki remained completely useless, darting around, but unable to ever get close enough to Tousen to even attempt to attack. Tousen could only see things by sensing the spirit energy they emitted, and Inoue's Shun Shun Rikka were pure spirit energy themselves; to Tousen, they were probably bright enough to see a mile off.

Aizen himself was just standing back and watching, much to Ichigo's irritation. What was this, prime time television to him?

Gin was attacking again, and Ichigo returned his attention to that, trying to move as quickly as his Bankai would let him go.

Even with Bankai speeds and flash steps, though, Gin kept seeming to get faster and faster as they exchanged attacks. Ichigo was smart enough to know what that meant: he'd been fighting too long while exhausted. He was involuntarily slowing down.

His expression set with concentration, Ichigo forced himself to continue focusing on the sword blows.

Lunge forward. Dodge. Slash. Twist. Jump back. Duck. Block. Slash. Turn around. Block. Sparks fly.

He was moving purely on instinct and reflex. Attack. Defend. Attack. Faster! Faster!

A loud crackling noise broke through his concentration suddenly, followed by a voice that sounded as though it were on loudspeakers. "Binding... successful! Captains, vice captains, and temporary vice captains of the Gotei 13, and also the Ryoka! This is Vice Captain Kotetsu Isane of the 4th division speaking. Can everyone hear me?"

Ichigo quickly put some distance between himself and Gin so that this distraction wouldn't cost him. Was this...?

"An emergency situation has occurred. This emergency transmission is under the authority of Captain Unohana Retsu of the 4th division and myself, Kotetsu Isane. Please listen carefully. Everything I'm about to say is all true."

Unohana had found Toushiro, Hinamori, and the Central 46. Ichigo felt a wave of relief flood through him. He'd been a bit worried that his early rescue would cause Aizen's actions to go completely unnoticed by Soul Society. That would have proved disastrous.

Thankfully, it seemed that when he had started acting early, Aizen had responded by also moving faster than he had the last time. While this probably meant that Toushiro and Hinamori had been lying there injured for longer than last time, it also meant that soon Ichigo and his friends were going to get help from the other captains.

Aizen, Tousen, and Gin were, by nature of the communication kidou spell that Isane was using, unable to hear the transmission that she was giving them. However, they were definitely aware that Ichigo and his friends were receiving it. Gin and Tousen had backed off to once again stand by Aizen, who was watching them with vague interest as they listened.

Ichigo was trying to ignore the transmission. He already knew the contents of the message—details about Aizen's treachery—and if Gin and Tousen weren't attacking any more, he was going to use this time to catch his breath a bit and try to come up with a plan.

Just attacking outright wasn't working. He was way too tired for this. If he couldn't even handle Gin's attacks, there was no way he'd be able to take Aizen.

His friends weren't going to be able to help either. Glancing over at them, he could tell that much. Chad's chest was bleeding a lot, and Ishida seemed to have taken a hit or two during the exchange somehow as well. Inoue seemed to be all right, but Rukia looked as though she was nearly unconscious there on Ishida's back. All of them had varying degrees of horror on their faces as they listened to Isane's message.

Ichigo's attention was drawn suddenly by Aizen beginning to walk forward. "It seems that my actions have been discovered," he observed, smiling at Ichigo. "I shall have to finish this now before the others arrive." He shook his head. "It is a shame. You were doing quite well."

Gripping Zangetsu's hilt tightly, Ichigo tried to raise it to a ready position as Aizen drew his sword again. He was horrified to realize that his body had ceased to respond to him. Slowly, he lifted Zangetsu up about an inch, but that's all he was able to do. He was shaking all over.

"_Move... Move!_" he yelled at himself desperately, watching Aizen approach. "_Move!_"

"_My turn!_" His hollow pushed at him suddenly, trying to force control.

Ichigo nearly choked, shoving his hollow away with what little strength he had left. "_No! Not again!_"

His hollow yelled back at him. "_You have no excuses this time! There is nobody here who would report this to Soul Society! Your friends are on your side, and I'm going to _kill _those three! You're going to get us both killed! Let me through!_"

Ichigo didn't let up on the pressure, still struggling to stay in control of his own body. "No!" he ground out, not even caring that he was speaking aloud now. "Stay... back!"

"_Che._" His hollow sounded almost disappointed. "_You truly are pathetic..._"

So fast that Ichigo barely realized what had just happened, his hollow shoved hard at him, knocking him down and out of the way and forcefully taking control.

Immediately, the mask began to form across his face and he grinned. "Sorry, Ichigo... I'm not about to die just yet."

Ichigo found himself rather suddenly in a very strange position. He was no longer in control of his body, but he could still see everything that was going on. He could still feel, could still hear, everything, but...

"Ichigo!" he could hear Rukia yelling from the sidelines.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue, too. His other friends were yelling something at him, as well. They all sounded panicked and confused, and for good reason.

His hollow began to move, lunging at Aizen with a yell of joy. Aizen had a look of surprise on his face, but he moved deftly out of the way of the attack. The hollow didn't stop, using sonido to move around behind him, firing off several black Getsuga Tenshou attacks.

The red-tipped black blasts of energy swirled and twisted around unpredictably, so that it looked as though they filled every available space in the area. All together, they smashed into the rock below them, sending dust and debris flying up everywhere.

Without waiting to see if the attacks had actually hit, the hollow leapt into the middle of the cloud of dust, slashing his sword in front of him blindly. Zangetsu came into contact with something metal, which sent sparks flying and created a screeching, ringing noise that echoed through the air.

At that point, the dust settled enough for him to see Aizen standing there with his sword drawn, holding back the hollow's attack easily. His smile had returned to his face, and he examined the hollow's mask with interest. "Fascinating," he murmured. "Are you, perhaps, an experiment of Urahara's?"

The hollow laughed. "Who knows? I'm just here to kill you!"

With that, he was moving again, spinning around and flash stepping backwards, of all things, in an attempt to hit Aizen from behind. Aizen was faster, though, and he dodged out of the way. Immediately, the hollow turned to attack again, letting off several more Getsuga Tenshou blasts. Aizen blocked a few of these with his sword and ducked around the others, keeping his gaze locked on the hollow mask.

Surprisingly, Aizen never attacked, instead merely continuing to put distance between them, ducking and twisting out of the way of the hollow's attacks whenever he needed to. He seemed almost as if he were simply analyzing the hollow's moves rather than fighting.

Finally, the hollow got fed up with this game of tag and he stopped, glaring at Aizen. "Fight me!" he yelled angrily.

"Oh, I will," Aizen assured him. "I just need to decide how first. You see, I would really like to avoid killing you at this point, and it's difficult to calculate how much weight to apply when stepping on an ant so that it doesn't die."

The hollow grit his teeth. "An ant?! Why you-"

Aizen interrupted him, his smile growing wider. "At any rate, I believe I have seen enough. This should do."

Suddenly, faster than he could even see, much less try to keep up with, Aizen was behind him. The hollow's eyes widened, and he attempted to whirl around to face him again. Before he could, though, several wounds opened up across his arms and legs near the shoulders, elbows, and knees, and then several more appeared across his back. Blood flew everywhere.

There was no time for thought; before he had even realized he'd been hit, the hollow had collapsed to the ground. From the sidelines, Ichigo's friends let out cries of dismay. "ICHIGO! NO!"

"W-what?!" the hollow let out in outrage, trying to get to his feet again.

Now Aizen was in front of him again, the tip of his blade at the hollow's throat, forcing him to look up at him. "I have severed the tendons in your arms and legs, and destroyed several important nerves in your back," he informed him. "Until those are healed, moving should be physically impossible for you."

The hollow growled in pain, jerking his head away from Aizen's sword and trying to force himself to his feet anyway. Aizen was right, though; he couldn't move at all.

"Now, what to do about this?" Aizen wondered almost idly to himself, tapping his blade against the hollow's mask. "Hmmm... Perhaps if I simply got rid of it."

With no further warning than that, he rammed the tip sharply into the mask, careful not to hit the skin beneath. The whole thing shattered, and Ichigo's hollow was forced back into Ichigo's mind, leaving him back in control of his own body again.

For all the good that did. The first thing he was aware of was the pain coursing through his body. He still couldn't move, and now it seemed like every part of him was on fire from the pain, blood seeping from his many wounds to collect in a pool beneath him.

Ichigo grit his teeth hard, trying not to scream. Why had this happened? _What,_ exactly, had just happened?

His hollow had just taken over. Taken over! Just like that! When had he become so weak that it had been able to just push him over like that?!

And Aizen had just beaten him quite literally into the ground. It was a wonder and a half that he wasn't dead. Again.

Why had this happened? Why was everything he was trying going so horribly wrong? Now Aizen was going to be able to retreat to Hueco Mundo _again_, and there was nothing he could do about it! Why-

"Well, that seemed to have worked." Aizen's voice broke through his thoughts again. With a happy smile down at Ichigo, he addressed his subordinate. "Kaname, keep an eye on the boy. We're taking him with us."

Ichigo choked and sputtered, trying to get to his feet again. "What?! Y-you can't just-!"

"Yes, sir." Abruptly, Tousen was standing next to him. The heel of his right foot slammed into his back, forcing him painfully to the ground again. Tousen had him firmly pinned.

"Kurosaki-kun!"

"Kurosaki!"

"Ichigo!"

Ichigo's friends sounded horrified. The sound of running footsteps let him know that they were heading his way, and immediately, he forced his head up to face them. "Stay back!" he yelled desperately. There was no need for them to get hurt, too.

"The others are still useless to me," Aizen commented. "Gin, kill them."

"No!" Ichigo continued to struggle against Tousen's hold, ignoring the pain ripping through him at every movement.

Gin paid him no heed, simply drawing his sword and pointing it at Ichigo's friends. They had stopped running towards Ichigo by now and were instead standing defensively behind Inoue's shield, though most of them were still watching Ichigo fearfully.

"Shoot to kill, Shinsou," Gin released his sword with a disturbingly happy look on his face. His blade extended towards the group at an alarmingly fast pace.

Instead of hitting Inoue's shield, though, Gin's sword came instead into contact with an enormous swarm of pink, which stopped it dead in its tracks. Behind the swarm, standing protectively in front of Ichigo's friends, was Byakuya, his expression as cool and deadpan as ever.

"Byakuya..." Ichigo let out in surprise. He hadn't honestly been expecting him to show up again. Now that he thought about it, though, it made sense. He hadn't actually defeated him, and now he was still in good enough condition to fight. Ichigo couldn't help allowing a smirk to cross his face. That was one thing that had gone well, anyway.

Byakuya wasn't looking at him, instead keeping his gaze on Gin while his blade returned to its normal length. When it was wakizashi size again, he turned to Aizen and Tousen. "Release Kurosaki Ichigo," he directed.

Aizen raised his eyebrows. "Release him? Why?"

Byakuya's eyes narrowed. "I swore an oath to kill him personally. I will not have him taken from me before I can do that," he said coldly.

If Ichigo could have smacked his forehead, he would have. Typical Byakuya. Knowing him, he meant it, too.

Aizen laughed. "I am sorry to hear that. I'm afraid I cannot do as you ask, Kuchiki-taichou. Maybe I'll let you have him back once I'm finished with him."

Byakuya frowned, and then reached his hand up to direct his swarm of pink, sending the blades flying directly at Aizen.

Ichigo's eyes widened as he realized that this meant that they were _also_ headed directly at _him_. And that Byakuya wasn't likely to care. He quickly ducked his head, burying his face in his arms—the most protection he could give himself with his current mobility.

The blades swarmed around him, whipping up the air into a whirlwind, but surprisingly, not a single one hit him. Ichigo glared up at Byakuya. "Hey, watch it! You almost hit me, you jerk!"

Byakuya still wasn't looking at him, for obvious reasons. Aizen had dodged completely around the attack, and now he was nowhere to be seen. Ichigo twisted around in all directions—or as much as he could with Tousen pinning him down—and tried to locate him. Where had he--?

"Hado number 90, Black Coffin." Aizen's voice came from behind Byakuya, and he whirled to face him. It was too late; black rods formed a cube around him, and then filled in with black.

Ichigo stared. No... Aizen hadn't just... He couldn't have...

The kidou spell completed its course, impaling the cube with thousands of black spears of energy. The whole thing faded away, leaving Byakuya standing alone, his face lifted upward, his eyes closed. For a half second, Ichigo dared to hope that perhaps the kidou hadn't worked, that Byakuya was unharmed...

Then, Byakuya collapsed, blood flying through the air from the multiple gashes suddenly covering his entire body.

"Niisama!" Rukia screamed.

"Byakuya!" Ichigo called out in horror. Angrily, he glared up at Aizen, fully planning on calling him as many bad names as he could think of.

Gin interrupted him before he could, though, whistling low. "A level ninety kidou spell without incantation? That's scaaary, Aizen-taichou."

Aizen shrugged, approaching his subordinates again. "I messed up, actually. That spell didn't have even half the power in it that it should have had. I'll have to work on that."

Rukia had struggled down from Ishida's back and was now running as quickly as she could, stumbling over the uneven ground. "Niisama!"

Aizen shook his head in amusement. "I keep trying to kill all of you, and yet every time, something keeps interrupting me." Smiling, he started to draw his sword once again. "I wonder what it will be this time."

As if in answer, two people flash stepped in, surrounding Aizen. One slammed a hand down on the hilt of his sword, keeping it firmly in its sheath. The other attached itself to Aizen's arm, holding a blade at his throat.

Aizen smiled down at the first. "Aha. Now this is a face I haven't seen in a while... Yoruichi."

Yoruichi glared up at him. "Don't move, Aizen."

"Or I'll cut off your head," Soi Fon added from her place on his arm.

Aizen kept still, his expression continuing to be calm and composed. "Of course."

"Kill him!" Ichigo shouted to them. "Don't hesitate! Kill him _now!_" Yoruichi gave him an almost surprised look, probably wondering at Ichigo's sudden call for violence. "Don't look at me like that! Just kill him!"

Tousen dug his foot further into Ichigo's back, causing him to cry out in pain and crumple to the ground again.

"Need help, Aizen-taichou?" Gin called out with some amusement. He raised one hand in a half-shrug. "Dunno exactly what I'd do, but—Whoops!"

Suddenly, someone had hold of Gin's raised hand, and a blade was being held at his throat as well. "You're going to not move, is what you're going to do," a calm voice instructed him. Just like before, Matsumoto Rangiku had him held down.

As soon as he realized who held him, Gin grinned at Aizen. "Sorry, Aizen-taichou!" he called almost happily. "I went an' got myself caught."

Aizen raised an eyebrow at him. "I see."

"It's too late for you, Aizen," Yoruichi informed him, glancing at Ichigo. "There's nowhere you can run. We have you surrounded."

Blurs of shunpo from captains and vice captains alike began to swarm in from all directions, seemingly confirming her statement.

Ichigo knew better, though. "He's escaping to Hueco Mundo with Negacion!" he yelled angrily, ignoring Tousen. "Kill him _now_!"

Yoruichi's eyes widened and she turned to Soi Fon. "You heard him! Do it!"

But it was already too late. Yoruichi, Soi Fon, and Matsumoto barely had enough time to get back before all three ex-captains were engulfed in yellow light, which flowed downward from a suddenly cracked sky.

Ichigo let out a cry of frustration. Aizen's "ride" had arrived early! Way early! How?! Why?!

Aizen was going to get away again! This wasn't what he wanted! Why had—

Suddenly, Ichigo had other things to worry about. Beneath him, the ground began to shake, cutting away from the rest of the hillside with loud cracking noises. In horror, Ichigo glanced up to realize that Tousen still had his foot placed firmly on his back. He was _inside_ the Negacion field!

"Hey! Wait a—Help!" Ichigo struggled once again in vain to get to his feet as the chunk of ground rose into the air.

Tousen pushed him back down again. "It's pointless. Don't even try it," he advised him disinterestedly.

Ichigo growled at him, trying to push against him anyway.

"Kurosaki-kun!" His friends were, of course, still below, watching in complete shock.

One of the vice captains growled, stepping forward and unsheathing his sword. "Aizen-taichou! You'll pay for-"

"Stop." Yamamoto looked solemn as he watched the pillars of light. "It's too late. Negacion is an ability used by Menos to rescue their own. Everything within its range becomes part of a different dimension entirely. As soon as that light came down, Aizen moved beyond our reach."

Captain Komamura growled low, his gaze locked on the field that held Tousen and Ichigo. This time around, he was decidedly un-black-coffined, but that didn't stop him from being just as angry as he had been the first time. "Tousen!" he yelled. "Get down here and explain to me!"

Tousen turned in his direction, the expression on his face unreadable as always.

"Why did you become a Shinigami?! Was it not for your deceased friend?! Was it not to carry out Justice?! Where is your Justice now?!"

Tousen replied calmly. "I've told you before, Komamura. The only path I see with these eyes is the path of least bloodshed."

Ichigo choked, struggling against him again. "'Path of least bloodshed' my—Ack!" Tousen kicked him down again and continued as though he hadn't spoken.

"There, Justice can always be found. The path I walk... _is_ Justice."

Komamura growled angrily at him again. "Tousen..."

Ichigo quite agreed with his tone, but was quickly finding that even when he wasn't moving, black and white spots were fading in and out of his vision dizzyingly, so he didn't bother trying to move again.

Ukitake, meanwhile, was having his conversation with Aizen. "To sink all the way to the level of allying with the Menos...What are you trying to do?"

Aizen gazed at him impassively. "I'm trying to go higher," he replied.

"Have you fallen in the process, Aizen?" Ukitake asked wisely.

Aizen shook his head in vague amusement and irritation. "You are far too arrogant, Ukitake," he intoned. "No one stands on the top of the world. Not you. Not me. Not God. But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over. From now on... I will stand in the heavens."

Ukitake evidently didn't have anything he could say in response to this. Instead he just glared up at Aizen.

Ichigo's pain-fogged mind was whirling. He now had about three seconds to try to come up with something he could possibly yell down at his friends, some bit of information about Aizen's plans he could give them. Something. Anything! What could he say?

Aizen smirked and turned away from them, facing the portal that had been opened up leading to Hueco Mundo. "Goodbye, Shinigami. And goodbye, Ryoka." He gave them one last glance over his shoulder. "Tell Urahara, 'Thanks for the gifts.'"

With that, the portal snapped shut, throwing everything into darkness.

* * *

I seem to have developed some fondness for ending chapters by knocking Ichigo out. Well, he's not knocked out this time! =D!

This chapter took forever to write. XD Seriously, I've been working on it ever since I actually put up the first one. It would have been done way before now if it hadn't been for that stupid hard drive crash. (Grumble, grumble)

It turned out really long, too. I remember posting up my second chapter of Feeling Hollow and going, "Wow, this is long! It's like 45 pages long, guys!" ... Um. Yeah. This one's 53 pages. Maybe it's just something about second chapters, eh? (Although it's not as long as Quickedit seems to think it is. o.O Weird thing keeps adding a thousand words to its count every time I save it... Microsoft Word says it's only 19,000 words.)

Well, I _did_ have a lot of stuff I wanted to cover in this chapter. My tendency to overcomplicate anything that has a battle scene in it because I want blow-by-blow battle scenes doesn't help much. XD This whole chapter, it seems like, was one ginormous battle scene.

I was really really sick of writing battle scenes by the end of this. So, you know, they're not very good. =D Good thing Lizeth drew me some nice fanart for some of it. (I've got a link up on my profile). A good manga page makes any battle look awesome. Thanks, Lizeth!

XD I actually got fed up enough with writing battle scenes that partway through, I attempted to pull up battle scenes from past chapters of my stories and copy/paste them in here and change names around... It didn't work. Apparently, I don't write very good cookie-cutter battle scenes. XD They're very event specific. I couldn't use any of them. So, I couldn't cheat. I had to create entirely new battles for this chapter. Oh well, probably better that way.

I'd like to thank everyone for the many many many reviews on the first chapter of this. =D Your encouragement is awesome, and I love reading your speculations! Quite a few of you were pretty close with your guesses, too! (Though I wish that those with close guesses weren't anonymous reviewers.)

The stats in general on this story are pretty amazing, actually. Thank you so much if you helped contribute to the 57 reviews, the 2800 hits, the 79 favorites, and the 117 alerts that the last chapter got! For a 4000 word teaser prologue chapter, that's not bad!

Also, a big thanks to those who did beta-reading for me! I really appreciated your comments!

And a huge thank you to my little sister, Shells (Shells124), who is planning on creating a manga version of Day Before Tomorrow. The whole thing. o.o Wow. That's some birthday gift. So, don't forget to stop by her deviantART page and check those out once she has some up.

Not sure what else to say about the story itself, so I'll switch gears a bit to inform you what stories I'll be spending my time on next. First off, I've been keeping track of my progress on my profile, so if you ever wonder what I'm working on, feel free to check there. It's kind of my instead-of-Twitter.

The next thing I'm going to be doing is finishing up a chapter of Legend of Zelda: The White Magician that I started randomly. It's pretty near completion already, so that shouldn't be too long.

After that, I'll be writing the next chapter of Feeling Hollow (including rewriting the 17 pages I lost from the hard drive crash).

At the same time that I'm doing the above two things, I'll be writing an original fiction story that Katie and I have been working on. At the moment, it's called _Ghost Stories: A Traveler's Log_, but that's actually going to change as soon as I come up with a better title. Hopefully, I'll be able to publish this one someday!

All this, of course, comes _after_ my real life stuff that I gotta worry about. I'm still going to college, and I've gotta apply for a summer job, and do work around the house, and all that.

Anyway, so I'm not sure when the next chapter of The Day Before Tomorrow will be started on. o.o Possibly not for a while. Although the next scene will be fun to write, and I may try to fit time for it in there somewhere. There are ideas for the story, no worries about that. It's planned out all the way to the end. I just wish I had enough _time_ to write it. (haha time travel fic has no time to be written).

So, yeah. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Make sure you check out Lizeth's awesome page, too! Please leave me reviews! =D!

--Daricio


	3. Confrontations

Hey all! Been a while...

So, the latest manga chapters revealed some stuff that might make this story an AU. Bother. But I think I can still work around that, for now. And don't worry; even if I have to call it completely AU, I'll still continue the story, trying to keep it the way I had it originally planned.

Also, this Ichigo's past officially splits away from canon at around the point where Ichigo gets back from Hueco Mundo. As mentioned in the previous chapter, right about when Ichigo got back, those pillars went down completely, bringing Karakura Town back to the living world, and allowing Aizen to activate his thing to make the king's key.

As I mentioned last chapter, I refer you to my story, Hollow Feelings. Ichigo's hollow acts kinda weird here, so before you write me angry letters claiming he's out of character, that story explains why, at least mostly.

Also, this chapter is very hollow-centric. This is because I'm obsessed. Sorry.

I would also like to apologize about another unfortunate thing; compared to last chapter, this one is incredibly short, especially considering how long it took me to update. D= I'm sorry I write so slow. In my own defense, it's kind of hard to beat 53 pages.

Now, with no further random notes, the next chapter picks up where the last one left off.

* * *

It was, of course, the split second after the gate to Hueco Mundo closed that Aizen's final comment forced Ichigo's pain-fogged mind to come to the realization that he'd never gotten a message of any sort to Urahara. Cursing Aizen, himself, the time machine, his inner hollow and anything else that came to mind, Ichigo attempted once more to get to his feet, involuntary moans of pain escaping from his lips at the movement.

Tousen's foot on his back picked up for an instant before slamming him down again, sending further waves of agony through his whole body and causing his vision to swim dizzyingly again. "I would recommend _not_ falling off while we're between worlds," his tormentor stated.

His "gaze" remained focused steadily ahead as the chunk of ground they rode pressed on into the darkness, giving Ichigo the impression that the man was purposefully ignoring his suffering. With a growl, he added the blind man to his list of things to yell at as soon as he regained any form of coherency at all.

Frustratingly enough, very little time passed before they reached their destination, the other side of the Garganta portal opening right into the main hall of Las Noches. Thinking of the long, difficult trek he and his friends had needed to make through the seemingly endless, almost smothering darkness between worlds in his previous time only served to annoy Ichigo further.

Aizen and Gin jumped nimbly off of their chunks of rock and onto the tiled floor, Aizen brushing his clothes off lightly and looking back at them with a soft smile. Tousen kicked Ichigo off of their shared platform before joining them.

With a yelp of pain, Ichigo tried to roll to his feet, but his limbs continued to give out on him. Dark, fuzzy spots invaded his vision, and he could barely think straight enough to formulate words at all, much less whole sentences. He settled for muttering whatever obscenities came to mind, trying to direct them at Aizen's smug face.

Aizen didn't even seem to hear him, turning and speaking to someone outside Ichigo's current range of vision. "Get him cleaned up. Healing, rest, whatever he needs. Bring him to me when he's presentable."

A disturbingly familiar voice answered him. "Yes, Aizen-sama."

Ichigo couldn't lift his head to look, but he didn't need to. Ulquiorra Schiffer soon strode into his view, looking as completely disinterested in the orange-haired teen as always as he reached toward him. He flinched away, nearly snarling at him in his frustration.

Ulquiorra, of all people! Ichigo had nearly forgotten that going back in time would mean defeated enemies would be un-defeated again. He knew he was really no match for Ulquiorra even at his strongest; there was no way he could fight back now!

But the pale Arrancar just ignored his strained protests, scooping him up into his arms and beginning to carry him away, surprisingly managing not to jostle any of his wounds too badly as he walked. All the same, stars seemed to explode before Ichigo's eyes at the mere movement and he squeezed them shut, gritting his teeth as he tried to will the pain away.

How had all this happened? What had gone so horribly wrong to get him here? What did Aizen want from him now that he hadn't before? For that matter, what was Ulquiorra doing here? Wasn't the Hougyoku supposed to have...?

But the questions raced through his foggy mind too fast for him to even start trying to find the answers before they slipped away. He could feel himself fading into unconsciousness.

At that realization, he forced his eyes open again, struggling once more to free himself from Ulquiorra's grasp. He wasn't about to let himself be carried around by the enemy!

"If you continue in your efforts, you will only succeed in injuring yourself further," the Arrancar's steady voice informed him. It wasn't a comment of concern, of course; merely stating fact. Ichigo twisted as much as he could to glare up at him, but the anger behind it was lost on the unemotional figure, who didn't even glance in his direction. "Your well-being has been made my responsibility," he continued, as if to explain his previous comment, "and I would rather you didn't kill yourself trying foolishly to escape."

Ichigo scowled at him. Everything about Ulquiorra's I'm-going-to-be-as-polite-as-possible-while-calling-you-trash-and-killing-you manner had always irked him, and this whole scenario just made it worse.

"Hey, look at what the cat just dragged in," another low, familiar voice called, his teasing, sarcastic tone immediately catching Ichigo's attention. There was a pause to allow a few snickers to sound from others with him, and then he continued, "No, seriously, look at that thing. What is that, Ulquiorra?"

The orange-haired boy groaned. Speaking of things that made everything worse... It was like he was purposefully being paraded in front of all the people he specifically _didn't_ want to see him in this condition, just to show off how weak he was.

Ulquiorra didn't bother to answer or acknowledge Grimmjow or, as Ichigo noticed a moment later, any of his underlings who were with him, merely walking by the group and continuing down the blank hallway.

"Hey, it's alive, whatever it is!" one of Grimmjow's fraccion exclaimed with mock-excitement as they passed. "Hey, Ilforte, poke it and see if it moves!"

"I'm not touching that bloody pulp," another replied with a laugh. "You do it, bro."

"Not with a ten-foot pole. Grimmjow, go poke it. Betcha it tries to bite you!"

Grimmjow snorted, coming to stand directly in front of Ichigo's captor to block off his path. Prodding Ichigo harshly in the side, eliciting a sharp hiss and a feeble attempt at retaliation, the blue-haired Arrancar commented, "I can't even tell what it _used_ to be. Ulquiorra, I didn't know you were in the habit of dropping children into blenders. What are you up to?"

The rest of Grimmjow's fraccion swarmed the two of them, forcing Ulquiorra to come to a stop, his unblinking gaze locked on the grinning, blue-haired Arrancar before him. "Aizen-sama has requested that this boy receive medical attention immediately," he announced, the slightest hint of irritation creeping into his voice. "Move; or I will move you."

Grimmjow continued to stand there laughing for several moments, but he finally stepped aside lightly, only barely out of Ulquiorra's way. "Fine, fine! Where you taking that thing, then? Szayel Aporro?"

The idea of _that_ made Ichigo's stomach drop. He'd heard horrific stories from Renji and Ishida both about the Espada researcher. They weren't seriously going to...

"For the moment," Ulquiorra answered tonelessly, continuing to move down the hallway, "I am taking him to a spare room. I will call Szayel Aporro if it becomes necessary."

"Don't want that creep messing up your new pet, then?" Grimmjow taunted, somehow managing to insult Szayel, Ulquiorra, and Ichigo all in a single comment. His fraccion seemed to approve, chuckling to themselves.

Ulquiorra, of course, had no reaction, ignoring the other Espada entirely. Ichigo seethed quietly, his inability to even move continuing to grind at his nerves.

Though they'd passed the blue-haired man and Ichigo could no longer see him with his limited mobility, he could just feel the other's wide smirk. "Well, since you won't tell me about it, maybe I'll have to stop by and pay the pet a visit later; see if it's interesting."

"Don't bother," Ulquiorra returned quietly as they rounded a corner. "It's just a useless bit of trash."

Ichigo's temper flared again. "Why you..." he managed to choke out angrily, shoving futilely against Ulquiorra's hold again. "...always saying that... freaking jerk." As soon as the words left his mouth, he scowled at how pathetic they were. He tried again, but his mind was apparently too fuzzy to even come up with good insults.

Not that Ulquiorra was listening to him anyway. They continued down the hall, Grimmjow's laughter echoing somewhere behind them.

By the time Ulquiorra came to a halt in front of a doorway, Ichigo was starting to drift off again. The change in movement stirred him back into consciousness, still trying to fight against the pale Arrancar as he moved to set him down on what was obviously a bed.

Without a word, the Arrancar began checking his injuries. At least, that's what Ichigo assumed he was doing. He couldn't tell exactly, since most of his body seemed to have gone completely numb, except for the places that had apparently caught fire, the pain flaring up brighter in seemingly random locations as the examination went on. Ichigo's only vague triumph about this whole thing was that he could see that the front of Ulquiorra's neat outfit had gotten completely smeared with blood from carrying him.

Several excruciating minutes passed, until finally Ulquiorra let out a sigh, backing away from Ichigo. "That should hold the bleeding for now," he informed him. "I will return momentarily."

With that, he turned and swished out the door, which closed with a soft thump and a click. The orange-haired teen guessed that it had been locked; not that he would have been able to attempt to leave even if it hadn't.

This left nothing more to focus on but the blank, white ceiling and his own thoughts. The numbness of unconsciousness finally began to overtake him, freeing him from some of the pain, and his questions from before inevitably returned to the surface of his mind. How had he managed to get himself here, of all places?

The only difference in what Aizen had seen this time compared to last time was...

A light growl escaped from him, his anger returning as he realized exactly what it had been. Aizen had seen his inner hollow. He hadn't known this early on that Ichigo was a Vaizard, before, and now that he had this much time to do something about it, he was going to...

To do what? What would Aizen do with this information?

Ichigo didn't know, and he didn't think he cared to find out. Instead, he focused on the one thing he _could_ do about all of this: he was going to make sure his inner hollow wouldn't be taking his body on any _more_ joy rides.

With any luck, the hollow transformation that would result from this would take out a few enemies as well, but even if it didn't, that didn't matter. This needed taken care of. Now.

As swiftly as he could manage, he dropped down into the sideways landscape of his mind, glad for the millionth time that injuries he had outside didn't affect him in here. As soon as his feet set down solidly on a glass window, his head cleared and he searched the landscape for his inner hollow. His right hand went instinctively up to grip Zangetsu's hilt, the sword having returned to its usual shikai form once he went inside his mind.

He spotted him easily, sitting some distance away on the edge of a building, gazing up at the sky. The inverted version of Zangetsu lay, still sheathed, on the ground several feet behind him, just out of his reach.

Not exactly what Ichigo had been expecting, but it didn't matter. He took a step towards him, his hand tightening on his sword hilt. "You. What exactly were you-"

"I'm sorry."

The hollow's soft-spoken words caught Ichigo completely off guard and he faltered to a stop, staring at his inverse self. "What?" He must have heard wrong; No way had his hollow actually said something like...

His other self glanced over at him, a vague smirk crossing his face for a split second. "What, are you deaf now?" Ignoring Ichigo's gaping, the hollow looked down at his hands, looking honestly upset. "You're right. This was all my fault. I wasn't strong enough and I just made everything worse."

"Made everything worse?" Ichigo snapped, deliberately ignoring the first thing his hollow had said since it made no sense. "Oh, no, I hadn't noticed! Are you referring to the fact that I can't _move_, the fact that Aizen _kidnapped_ me, or to the fact that _all_ of my foreknowledge from the future is now totally _useless_ because I have _no_ idea what's going to happen anymore?!"

The hollow winced at each of these accusations. "I said I was sorry. I wasn't _trying_ to make that happen, you jerk. What else do you want from me?"

The heated response that the orange-haired teen had prepared died in his throat at the look on the hollow's face. Some irritation, yes, but mostly... Was that guilt?

This was not right at all. Ichigo didn't know what, but something must have gone _horribly_ wrong, because there was no way his inner hollow would ever act like this. Not in a million years.

Was this some kind of trick, maybe? Was he just trying to throw him off to get a surprise hit in or something?

Whatever he was planning, the hollow's distressed expression succeeded in making Ichigo uncomfortable. Without thinking, he relaxed his grip on Zangetsu's hilt. At the very least, he couldn't bring himself to attack the other when he didn't even have his sword anywhere near him, especially when he obviously felt so bad about what had happened.

Ichigo shook himself at that thought. What was he thinking? Hollows didn't feel anything except an insatiable hunger for power, fighting and bloodshed. Irritably, he snapped at his hollow, "What are you trying?"

The hollow looked mildly confused for a moment, but then his usual smirk finally reappeared. "I'm always amazed by how dense you are. I'm _trying_ to apologize, moron. That's what you do when you royally screw up."

"But you can't...! That's not...!" Ichigo sputtered. "What is _wrong_ with you?!"

The other rolled his eyes, looking amused. "That's a stupid question. I'm a hollow, that's what's wrong with me. I'm not like you anymore. Good thing, too, apparently."

Ichigo could only continue to stare, his eyes narrowed in anger and suspicion. "That's not what I meant. Why are you acting like this?"

His hollow raised an eyebrow at him, finally seeming to get that Ichigo was referring to his original timeline. "Acting like what?" he asked dryly.

"Just—just being really weird! Talking instead of fighting!" Ichigo ranted. "And not just now, either! Even earlier you kept talking to me, commenting on random stuff and distracting me. And before that, was I just imagining things, or did you call me _partner_?!"

His hollow turned to face him fully with a look of mild surprise. "Aren't we?"

"No!" Ichigo yelled in frustration. "No, and we never _have_ been! We are enemies!"

His shout hung heavily in the air for a long second as the hollow stared at him, his expression a strange muddle of emotions that Ichigo never thought he'd see there. Shock. Confusion. Anger. Hurt.

And then finally, a smirk grew on his face, as though he'd suddenly wiped all other emotion away with it. "Oh, are we?" he inquired almost pleasantly, his chuckles echoing around the inner world eerily. Before Ichigo could respond, he continued, giving him a level smile. "All right. So, whose fault was that?"

"Whose fault was what?" Ichigo snapped, still confused.

Almost lazily, his hollow got to his feet, though he still didn't make a single move towards his zanpakutou. "Is your attention span really that short? You said we're enemies. I'm asking, why?"

Ichigo grit his teeth. "You said yourself; you're a hollow. Does there need to be any other reason?"

The hollow laughed again, sounding somehow even creepier and more insane than usual. "No, I suppose for the average clueless shinigami, there wouldn't be," he conceded patronizingly. He grinned at his orange-haired counterpart. "I guess I misjudged you, Ichigo. I assumed you had at least a _spark_ of intelligence."

The insult just made Ichigo even more annoyed, especially since the other still hadn't moved to pick up his sword. "You're not making any sense," Ichigo bit out. "_You_'re the one who told me to quit trying to talk my way out of fighting and to seek out battle to become stronger. Now you're telling me the opposite! Make up your mind!"

The hollow tilted his head slightly, giving Ichigo a sideways smirk. "You know, it's difficult to defend my own words when I don't have the context of the conversation," he mentioned, not seeming frustrated, merely pointing out the obvious. "I can't tell you what I was thinking _next month_."

Ichigo opened his mouth to retort, but the hollow interrupted him again, looking smug. "However, I think I'm pretty safe in assuming that I meant fighting _other_ people, you idiot. What makes you think you'll get stronger by cutting off your own arm?"

"What are you talking about?!" Ichigo sputtered indignantly. "This isn't like that! You're-"

"You and I are two parts of the same person, Ichigo!" his hollow cut in, his tone slow and steady as though explaining to a small child. "You can hate me with every fiber of your half of our soul if you like, but that fact will not change. Hating your own left arm doesn't make it any less useful!"

Ichigo glared at him. "Useful?! What makes you think you've ever been _useful_?!"

The hollow's smirk faltered for a second, but then he laughed. A light, misty fog that had been creeping almost unnoticed into the area somehow distorted the sound even further, adding to the spine-chilling effect. "Don't lie to yourself," he said matter-of-factly. "Even ignoring stuff _I've _done for you, I've caught glimpses of your memories; I saw you wearing my mask to help you fight."

"That has nothing to do with this!" Ichigo shot back. "And what do you mean, stuff you've done? What have you done besides attack me, force control of my body, and get me kidnapped?"

Rolling his eyes, the hollow deliberately ignored the accusation. "What do _you_ mean, it has nothing to do with it?" he shot back. "Do you use my powers, or don't you?"

Ichigo scowled, unsheathing Zangetsu at last and holding it ready. "Not while you're still around messing things up for me," he bit out. "Quit with your mind games. I've beaten you once, and I'll do it again!"

The hollow scoffed lightly, waving a hand distractedly in a vague attempt to clear the fog from the air. "So that's it, then. You're just being a moron because you're greedy for power. Gotta say, Ichigo, I never would have thought it of you. We were never like that."

Ichigo finally lost his patience and lunged at the hollow. "I said enough of the mind games!" he yelled, swinging Zangetsu down at his head as hard as he could.

With a laugh, the hollow rolled to the side, grabbing the hilt of his inverted sword as he did. Flipping it up in front of him, the black cloth releasing the blade with a flourish, he blocked Ichigo's next attack, the two swords throwing off sparks as the blades grated together.

The hollow grinned at Ichigo from underneath their crossed swords as mist swirled around them. "Very nice. Lots of power, lots of speed."

"Shut up!" Ichigo snapped, ducking to the side and swinging again.

Still chucking in his usual creepy fashion, the hollow sidestepped, aiming his own blow at Ichigo. "At least I know you'll give me a good fight!" he called cheerfully. "Hopefully I'll give you a good one, too!"

Gritting his teeth, Ichigo jumped back, holding Zangetsu parallel with the ground. "I'm not after a good fight," he seethed. "I'm here to get rid of you!" He began channeling energy through the blade, the hilt wrap twisting around his arm. "BAN-"

He was interrupted by the world beginning to twist and roll beneath his feet, the whole landscape suddenly flowing like an ocean during a storm. "What the...?" Startled, his hands fumbled and Zangetsu dropped to the ground. Trying to get into a defensive position, he glared up at his hollow. "What did you do?!"

But the hollow looked just as surprised as he did, crouching down in an attempt to keep his balance and staring at the warping building beneath him. "I didn't do anything!"

And then everything, including the increasingly heavier fog, began to change colors, shifting from one to the next slowly, like they'd been caught in a bizarre rainbow projector. Blue, purple, red, green, yellow; tainting the landscape and its inhabitants alike with the insanity.

Moving as well as he could with the crazy scenery, Ichigo made his way over to his hollow, grabbing the front of his shihakusho partly to be threatening and partly in an attempt to keep from falling over. "What did you do?!" he repeated, panicking as he watched the hollow alternate shades before his eyes. "What's wrong with my head?"

With a scowl, his hollow shoved him back and Ichigo lost his balance, tumbling to the ground, trying not to be sick. His only condolence was that his hollow had also apparently fallen over, his sword clattering as it hit the shifting building. "Why is everything automatically _my_ fault?" he yelled at Ichigo irritably. "Maybe one of those Arrancar, or whatever you called them, did something!"

Immediately, an image came to Ichigo's mind: Szayel Aporro Granz. It had to be him; a drug of some sort messing with his head. Really _strong_ drugs.

As quickly as he could, he shoved himself to his feet, swearing at nobody in particular. With some effort, he forced himself out of his mental world and back to his body.

A wave of pain was the first thing that hit him and Ichigo staggered, having forgotten about the condition his body had last been in. Somehow, he was on his feet, though he was shaking uncontrollably. As he stood there in shock from the pain, something hard fell away from the left side of his face in chunks; the hollow mask, which had apparently started forming once he and his hollow had started fighting.

In front of him, one eyebrow raised, stood an Arrancar with straight, pink hair and white glasses holding what looked suspiciously like an empty syringe; obviously Szayel. Behind him, leaned up against the doorway with his hands in his pockets, was Ulquiorra.

Szayel spoke, his head tilting to one side. "You're awake. Fascinating. Well, that shouldn't last too long."

Ichigo shook his head, trying to clear it. This turned out to be a bad idea; blackness invaded his vision at the movement, making him even dizzier than he'd already been. In frustration, he took a step forward. "What did you do to-"

He couldn't go on. The blackness didn't go away, instead overtaking his vision completely. Taking a few more blind steps forward, his stomach turning over nauseatingly, Ichigo stumbled, suddenly crashing to the ground.

Hands took hold of his shoulders, hoisting him upwards, and Szayel said something else that Ichigo could no longer make out. Then, everything faded completely from his awareness as he fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

"Get up, boy."

The harsh, cold words broke through the fog of sleep. Ichigo resisted, keeping his eyes closed as hard as he could. There was no way it was time to wake up yet.

Something touched his arm and years of instinct kicked in. Ichigo grabbed whatever it was, twisted, and tried to use the forward momentum to flip his attacker over his shoulder and through the window above him.

This didn't work quite the way he'd expected. For one thing, whatever he'd grabbed remained quite solid in its position and didn't go flying at all. For another, there was no window there for it to go through in the first place. This definitely wasn't his room.

Grudgingly, Ichigo had to force himself to wake up enough to examine his surroundings. Empty, white walls. A room with no decorations or furniture besides the hard bed he now sat on. A single barred window, revealing a black night sky devoid of stars. Standing beside the bed, looking bored was...

Ichigo abruptly dropped Ulquiorra's wrist, whirling to face him with a scowl, his hand reaching up to grab Zangetsu's hilt. To his horror, it wasn't there. "Hey, what's the-"

Ulquiorra interrupted his outraged protest. "Aizen-sama requests your presence," he informed him uninterestedly. "Your wounds are healed. Your zanpakutou is there." He gestured to the corner. "Now, follow me." He turned, assuming that Ichigo would do as he'd been told.

Ichigo ignored him, instead examining himself carefully, slowly gripping and relaxing one hand in front of himself. Everything seemed normal enough so far.

He still wore the usual shinigami uniform, and his zanpakutou, leaned up in the corner formed by the bed and the wall, was in its usual shikai form. As Ulquiorra had mentioned, he wasn't in pain anymore. In fact, he felt a lot better than he had in a long time. Even his reiatsu had been revitalized.

This only served to make him feel even more suspicious, and a little insulted. Besides Ulquiorra, there didn't seem to be _any_ guards at all, and they'd brought Ichigo back to his full strength. Didn't Aizen, or anyone here, consider him even a little bit of a threat?

Ulquiorra stopped to wait for him at the door, face as unemotional as ever. "If you delay, Aizen-sama will not be pleased."

Ichigo shot him a glare. "Like I care."

There was a short pause, but a slow blink was the only indication that Ulquiorra had even heard his comment. He turned back to the entry, his coat flaring out around him as he began to walk again. "You will come," he said matter-of-factly. "If only to find out _why_ you are here."

Ichigo bit back a sharp response, knowing that the pale Arrancar was right. Like it or not, there could only be one person to ask that question to, and he did need to find out exactly what Aizen planned for him. Not that he could trust the liar to give him the right information. But he needed _some_thing.

That didn't mean he had to be polite about it. Unhurriedly, he pulled himself to his feet, grabbing Zangetsu and slinging it over his back, shooting suspicious glares at Ulquiorra as he did so.

When he realized the Arrancar wasn't waiting for him, his scowl deepened. Technically, if he ever got lost in this place, he could just bust through walls till he found whatever he was looking for, but with the bizarre hallway manipulations that took place around here, it wasn't like he could ever get anywhere they didn't want him to go anyway. Until he got some answers, at least, following Ulquiorra was his best bet, at least so that he didn't give away what power levels he was capable of before he even started fighting.

His total inability to do anything, despite being at full power again, was aggravating, to say the least. Gritting his teeth, he finally trudged after the pale Arrancar, keeping him just in sight enough to know where he needed to go next and no more. His nerves were grinding, and his hand kept straying up to grip Zangetsu's hilt. He hated everything about this.

Finally, Ulquiorra stopped at a doorway at the end of the hallway and gestured vaguely for him to go inside.

Ichigo eyed him suspiciously, coming to a halt. "I'm not letting you get behind me," he insisted. Not that he honestly thought Ulquiorra would pull a surprise attack, at least not at this point. He just felt incredibly uncomfortable about the idea of the enemy hovering where he couldn't see.

Ulquiorra didn't move either. "I will not be going in," he informed him. "This is a private meeting."

For a long moment, neither of them budged, Ichigo glaring and Ulquiorra merely watching impassively. Finally, Ichigo broke the standoff, stalking past him and into the room. True to his word, Ulquiorra didn't follow. The door closed behind him.

"Ah, Ryoka boy... How kind of you to join me."

Ichigo turned at the voice, his eyes narrowed. "What do you want from me, Aizen?"

To his surprise, they weren't in Aizen's main "throne room". Instead, the man was seated at the end of a long table. Enough chairs surrounded the table that all of the Espada could sit around it, but at the moment, Aizen appeared to be the only one in the room, calmly sipping at a mug of tea.

The man gave Ichigo what was undoubtedly a false smile, gesturing around the table at the many empty chairs. "Please, take a seat. Would you like some tea?"

Ichigo scowled, remaining standing. "No. Just get to the point. What do you want from me?"

"So high-strung," Aizen sighed, slowly taking a drink from his cup again. "There's no need to rush. We have all the time in the world to discuss matters."

"We do not," Ichigo spat. "Answer my question."

Aizen smiled again. "Please, take a seat," he commanded gently. "We may be a while, and I certainly wouldn't want to inconvenience you."

Ichigo snorted derisively. "Liar. You don't care. I'd be surprised if you cared about anything."

"You'll find I care about a great many things, Ryoka boy," Aizen said with some amusement, leaning his chin against one hand propped up on the table. "For example: Your name? There were rumors thrown around Soul Society during your wonderfully-executed invasion, of course, but they somehow never included that information."

Ichigo glared suspiciously. He was pretty sure Aizen already knew that, and probably a great many other things about him too, and was just testing him. "Kurosaki Ichigo," he said finally.

"Kurosaki. I see." Aizen sounded intrigued, but it was impossible to tell how much of that was faked. "Fascinating."

"What do you want from me, Aizen?" Ichigo demanded again. "Why take the trouble to bring me all the way here? You're not getting any information out of me."

"On the contrary," the man smoothly objected, "you have provided me with much information already. Everything about you is _brimming_ with interesting new information. Your entire existence fascinates me."

Ichigo started to protest, but Aizen went on, "For example, the level of power you, a human, have achieved." He gave Ichigo a level smile, seeming to change subjects. "Are you aware that in Soul Society, children are born just as in the living world?"

Narrowing his eyes, Ichigo wondered to himself where Aizen thought he was going with all this. Stubbornly, he stayed quiet.

Smile never faltering, Aizen merely continued when Ichigo didn't speak. "In fact, children with two Shinigami parents are common, especially within the noble families. Kuchiki Byakuya, for example, has such great potential as a Shinigami partly because of his heritage."

"What's this got to do with anything?" Ichigo shot at him; though he had a suspicion he knew now what Aizen was getting at.

Aizen shook his head. "I merely wonder how a boy with a living human for a parent comes to have so much _more_ spiritual potential, a largely genetic ability, than many with the advantage of _two_ Shinigami parents. What is it about that combination that produced such efficient results?"

Ichigo didn't bother asking what "combination" Aizen meant. His father had been forced to reveal his Shinigami past once Ichigo had returned to Karakura town from Hueco Mundo. It had been a shock, of course, but there had been other more important things to deal with at the time than the secrets they'd kept from each other. He opened his mouth to again protest Aizen's rambling, but the other man went on before he could speak.

"Did you ever wonder how you, and Urahara Kisuke, and the last known branch of the Quincy all just happened to wind up living in the same town, of all the places in the world? Why would he choose that place if not for the _people_ there?"

That was a totally random tangent, and Ichigo gaped at Aizen as he tried to wrap his head around the man's implications. Why on earth had he gone from talking about Ichigo's Shinigami father to talking about the Quincy living in Karakura town? What was he trying to get at?

Ichigo shook his head hard to clear it, coming to the obvious conclusion that Aizen was just trying to confuse him with his pointless drivel. "Quit babbling nonsense. Why-"

Aizen smoothly cut in with his own question. "How long have you known Urahara Kisuke?"

With a scowl, Ichigo answered vaguely, "Long enough."

"I see," Aizen murmured. "And I don't suppose he mentioned to you the interesting side effects of the training he gave you until after you noticed the hollow within you attempting to take over?"

"That has nothing to do with anything," Ichigo shot. "I can handle it." Which was about what he'd told Rukia the one time she'd asked a similar question.

Aizen nodded amiably. "I'm sure you can," he agreed. "Eventually. And yet, how fascinating that he simply sent you off without so much as a warning. As it is, it's rather amazing that you know as much as you do about _any_thing. The man always was full of unnecessary secrets..." he said the last part almost as if to himself, but Ichigo knew it was meant for him.

"Shut up," Ichigo directed. "I trust Urahara-san."

Aizen raised an eyebrow at him questioningly. "Do you? Why?"

Ichigo scowled. "I just do. He knows what he's doing. If it hadn't been for him, I never could have rescued Rukia."

The other man sighed, shaking his head slowly. "And yet, would she have been in a situation where she needed rescuing in the first place if he hadn't been trying to hide the Hougyoku within her? Did he ask for her permission before he tried to drain her of her spiritual powers?"

Frustratingly, he couldn't outright deny that. Before he could say anything at all, though, Aizen went on, "Urahara Kisuke has calculated and manipulated from the shadows ever since he was first exiled almost 100 years ago. Without real care for the well-being of those whose lives he controls, he has lived his life purely in attempt after attempt at defeating me." The man smiled at him again. "This includes, of course, carefully setting up a certain ex-Shinigami captain in the real world, bringing together that combination I mentioned before. The only thing he asked for in return was the right to train the Shinigami's first-born son; a child bred for fighting and war."

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "You're trying to convince me that Urahara-san planned my _birth_?"

Aizen seemed surprised that he didn't already know this. "Of course," he replied amiably. "Your birth, your spiritual development, your first encounter with Kuchiki Rukia... Did you really think it was an accident? That he just happened to be on the scene to gladly provide a stranded Shinigami with a special-made gigai?"

"I trust Urahara-san," Ichigo repeated stubbornly, ignoring the twinge of doubt that arose when he still couldn't deny a single thing Aizen had said. "I trust him with my life, and nothing you say can change that."

"Really?" Aizen's soft expression didn't change as he looked Ichigo over scrutinizingly.

Ichigo grit his teeth. "You know, you keep talking as if you _haven't_ been manipulating from the shadows, you traitor. You take no thought in cutting down your own allies. You're cruel, heartless and a liar. Why should I trust _you_?"

"Trust me?" Aizen questioned, sounding amused again. "Kurosaki Ichigo, I don't believe I ever asked you to trust me."

"What?" Ichigo frowned at him suspiciously. "Then what are you-"

Aizen merely shook his head. "I never said that you should trust me, nor did I in any way imply such," he repeated calmly. "I admit that I have, as you mentioned, been almost as manipulating as Urahara Kisuke. I influence events to bring about my purposes, while he meddles in the affairs of those around him for the sake of defeating those purposes. Two opposing sides in a seemingly never-ending dispute."

"Urahara works to defeat your purposes because your purposes are wrong," Ichigo stated.

"Do you even know what my purposes are?" Aizen asked, one eyebrow raised. "Everything you know about me is say-so from Urahara—what little he deigns to tell you. You have dropped into the middle of this war without really knowing who either of the combatants are or what they're fighting for. You chose to fight alongside one of these combatants, presumably because he 'helped you' at some point, but you really have no idea which of us is in the right."

Ichigo's fists were shaking, and he wasn't sure if whether it was from anger or something else. "And I suppose you think you're in the right."

Aizen smiled. "You'll find that very few people believe themselves to be truly evil, Kurosaki Ichigo." Setting his cup of tea down on the table, Aizen stood slowly. "As for trust, I don't ask that my followers trust me; merely that they follow. I extend that invitation to you as well. Follow me if you like. Or don't."

Ichigo growled. He'd thought that this was what Aizen would ultimately come to. "Absolutely no wa-"

"I do not expect an answer right away," Aizen interrupted him with a smile. "Please, take however long you need to think it over. In the meantime, feel free to explore as you like. Ulquiorra will show you around." He turned away, beginning to walk towards a doorway Ichigo hadn't seen before. "We have training facilities, of course, and I'm sure that many of my Arrancar are intrigued with you enough to want to spar if you would like. I do ask that you do not actually kill any of them, but that is up to you as well. Just know that certain actions will have consequences."

Ichigo scowled after him, calling out again. "I said, absolu-"

He was interrupted again, this time by an inner voice. "_Why not? Joining him seems like a good idea to me._"

Ichigo choked, abruptly cutting off what he was saying to focus his attention inwards, shoving the hollow down. "What?! No! What are you talking-"

"_Not out loud, moron!_" his hollow hissed at him, shoving Ichigo right back. "_Come on, any amateur knows you don't discuss strategy in front of the enemy!_"

Ignoring him at first, Ichigo mentally pushed downward, bringing his hand up to the left side of his face to help with that effort. Then, a contradiction in the hollow's words struck him as odd. "_Enemy? You just said you wanted to join him!_"

The hollow laughed. "_Sure! You join him, and then you plot behind his back. Maybe get a few more of these Arrancar on your side. He did mention that none of them trust him. I wonder how many would be interested in a coup d'état._"

Ichigo scowled. "_You're crazy,_" he seethed.

"_Probably true!_" his hollow agreed with a smirk. "_Too bad me and Zangetsu-san are currently the only ones here on your side, then, huh?_"

"_You're _not_ on my-_"

Once more, Ichigo was interrupted, this time by a hand being laid on his shoulder. "Having troubles?" Aizen inquired lightly.

"Shut up," Ichigo yelled thickly, jerking back and reaching for his zanpakutou. "This has nothing to do with you!"

"_Of course, it may be hard to pull off anyway,_" his hollow continued as though Ichigo was still listening to him. "_You've made your stand pretty obvious; he would be suspicious if you suddenly changed your mind._"

"Shut up!" Ichigo screamed again. "I'm not doing it! Why won't you just disappear?!"

The hollow snickered at him, but he backed down. "_All right, all right. But only because you're making yourself look like a fool. I was just stating my opinion, partner._"

"Get out of here!" Ichigo snarled, sending after him the best mental equivalent of a Getsuga Tenshou he could figure out how to make to emphasize his point.

The hollow's laughter echoed as it died away, its source retreating back to Ichigo's mental world without another word.

Breathing heavily, Ichigo opened his eyes again (when had he shut them?) and glanced quickly around the room. Aizen stood mere feet away, watching him with a calm, almost smug I-told-you-so expression.

Ichigo glared at him, feeling suddenly, irrationally angry at the man. His grip on Zangetsu's hilt tightened and in seconds the blade was unsheathed and flying towards Aizen. "I'll _never_ join you!" he bellowed as he swung.

Aizen didn't even move, nor did his expression change for an instant, but Ichigo's sword never got near him, stopped by a vague blur that Ichigo soon realized was Ulquiorra, his hand held out in front of him to catch the blade. "That is quite unwise," the pale Arrancar said matter-of-factly.

"Nobody asked you," Ichigo growled with clenched teeth.

"Very fascinating," Aizen said softly, almost to himself. When Ichigo turned his death glare back on the arrogant man, he merely smiled and turned away again. "Think hard on my offer, Kurosaki Ichigo. I am sure you will make the right choice... before it becomes too late."

Angrily, Ichigo shoved away from Ulquiorra, determined to put a large hole in the ex-Shinigami captain's head. Before he could get that far, though, Aizen had swept out of the room, sending him one last light smirk over his shoulder as he did.

As Ulquiorra moved resolutely to keep Ichigo from going after him, the orange-haired teen let out a long, loud yell of frustration. Why was _nothing_ going as he'd planned?!

* * *

I could have added another scene onto this... but I figured, you've all been waiting for me long enough, and this makes for an okay stopping spot.

I _could_ have stopped right after Ichigo passed out in front of Szayel to get the chapter out even faster, but I was informed that if I pulled another horrible cliffhanger like the last one, I might end up stoned to death, so I refrained. XD I'd say again that I didn't _mean_ for the last one to be such a terrible cliffhanger, and that it was just the best place to end the scene so that the chapter didn't end up even more horrifically long than it was... but every time I say that, all I get are death glares and "riiiiiight"s, so I'll just say Sorry. This one's better, right?

On a random note: have you ever used the color-cycle effect found on many movie making programs? (Or seen the effect used in AMVs?) Have you ever tried using it on a scene (any scene) that has Ichigo in it? Don't. Seriously, don't. Ever. The things that happen to his hair are incredibly trippy.

I have discovered that I like writing conversations with Aizen. Partly because, you see, I can sometimes sneak in random theories of mine into the things he says. If I'm right, people will go, "Ooooh, what/how does he know?!" and if I'm wrong, I can blow it off as "Eh, it's just Aizen messing with us." One thing I've learned about Aizen, though; assume he knows _every_thing. Better to wind up shocked that he didn't know something than to be shocked that he did.

So, next chapter will most likely also take forever to get written. D= Again, I'm sorry I write so slowly.

Probably the next thing to get published on the site will be the next chapter to Feeling Hollow, which I currently have about half done. After that, I _may _start working on a story idea that I've been putting off for a while on account of having too many other projects but that seems like it will be a lot of fun to write. (Also about Ichigo's hollow... sort of. But of course. That's only to be expected of me, right?). Once I finish that (or possibly while I'm still working on it; I tend to work on more than one project at a time) then I'll start on the next Day Before Tomorrow chapter. If I don't actually do my other project, then the next DBT will be started once the Feeling Hollow chapter is up.

And, of course, I'll be working on my original novel, and dealing with my day-to-day life, including school. Check my profile page for update notices, as always.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Comments/theories/yelling at me/whatever are highly encouraged! =D Till next time!

--Daricio


	4. Pondering

Oh, wow. Gotta say, I wasn't expecting so many people to be offended by Ichigo's attitude in my last chapter. That's... actually kind of weird to me. I spend so much time worrying that you'll all think Shiro is out of character, due to the way I'm writing him according to the timeline in Hollow Feelings, and I wasn't even thinking about the fact that I might have to defend _Ichigo's_ seeming out of character-ness.

And yes, I said seeming. My Day Before Tomorrow Ichigo acts a bit differently from canon Ichigo, and definitely _way_ differently than my Feeling Hollow Ichigo, who is comparatively kind of naïve, really. But he's not actually "out of character", at least in my opinion.

So, in the same way that I wrote Hollow Feelings in an attempt to explain why I always write Shiro differently than everyone else does, I have written this chapter mostly to explain why this Ichigo is so... I believe "immature", "over-emotional", "judgmental" and "really mean" are some of the many words you all used to describe him. And yes; that's true, he is.

Anyway. It's not _only_ an explanatory chapter; other plot stuff happens as well.

There are mild hints of one-sided Ishi/hime at the end, just to warn you. I don't write romance, so don't expect anything, but I still like dropping hints.

Also, **spoiler warning**: Mentions/descriptions of manga chapters up to, like, 400 something. Be warned.

Enjoy~!

* * *

Sleep—true sleep, not the unnatural, unhealthy state of unconsciousness that his body and soul had nearly gotten used to over the weeks of travel, hiding, and fighting for his life—finally brought with it a small measure of calm. There was a level of coherency that couldn't be attained through that fog of raw nerves and sleep deprivation, and having that need fulfilled even to the smallest extent helped his view of the situation immeasurably.

A good thing, too. Ichigo had a lot to think about as he lay in the still silence of his room in Hueco Mundo and he really needed his mind working at its peak.

He couldn't say for sure what had stopped him from retreating straight back into his mind once Aizen had left, taking care of his hollow once and for all. Partially, he reflected now, it was because he still didn't know what Szayel had done (or would do) to him as a result of the hollow transformation, and he didn't want to risk insanity until he knew exactly what the madman had pumped him full of.

Ichigo kept telling himself that, but some part of him deep inside knew that something of his hollow's words had struck a chord with him. The immense bizarreness of the entire situation combined with a strange, cool logic that he knew couldn't be right, but somehow...

So, in frustration, he'd merely followed Ulquiorra, who, once Ichigo had blatantly refused a 'tour' of the place, had led him back to the room he'd woken up in. Sleep, at the time, was unwelcome, but much needed.

Now, the conversations he'd had—both with his hollow and with Aizen—kept replaying through his mind as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Aizen's offer to join him honestly didn't surprise Ichigo, now that he could think objectively about the whole thing. While the actual offer had never been outright stated as it just had, Aizen had tried to make him question his loyalties before, soon after Ichigo's initial attack on him after returning from Hueco Mundo had failed.

* * *

"_To what end do you fight me? Do you have some kind of hatred for me?" The man didn't even bother turning around as he spoke, his words piercing into Ichigo's panicked mind. "You shouldn't. I can tell just by looking at you that your friends aren't dead. You have no real reason for hate."

* * *

_

At the time, Ichigo had assumed that Aizen was just trying to provoke him into a foolish attack, something that the other captains had stopped him from not moments later. However, those words could definitely have been an attempt to make him change sides, especially considering that last conversation.

Still, if that really was Aizen's intent (and for all he knew, it could be something entirely different because one _never_ knew exactly what Aizen was up to at any given moment) then the man's efforts were in vain, then and now. Ichigo had seen far too much of what Aizen was capable of to believe that his intentions were anything but evil. If he hadn't truly hated the man before, he definitely did now.

Inoue's condition was just one reason. He'd finally managed to rescue her, defeating several Espada one after another to do so—including Ulquiorra—only to find her nearly a different person than she'd been not a week before. Her infallible tendency towards cheerfulness had all but vanished. A good effort could make the girl truly smile again, but even before she'd been told about the destruction of Karakura town, she acted almost like stone, or a ghost. Serious, worried, nearly unemotional except when expressing her desire that nobody be hurt anymore.

Ichigo didn't know how much of that could be blamed on Aizen and how much on her actual captor, Ulquiorra, but the thought that they'd destroyed his friend's innocence still filled him with disgust.

And then afterward, when Gin's lightning fast, long sword had unexpectedly brought the pillars crashing down and the sleeping residents of Karakura town were brought forcefully back into Aizen's grasp... Ichigo winced as the memory floated unbidden back to the surface of his mind.

* * *

"_Run, Ryoka boy... Perhaps you can save a few." Aizen's cold voice rang in his ears as he ran, as hard and as fast as he'd ever run before. _

_Before his eyes, all he could see were people: in their homes, lying in the streets, peaceful in sleep and about to die unless someone was merciful enough to pick them up and drag them from the doomed city._

_That someone wasn't him. Stabs of guilt cut him to the very core as he searched desperately for his friends. Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, his other friends from school, even Kon. They would all get caught in this if he couldn't find them. _

_Who was he to decide who lived and who died? Who was Aizen to force this decision upon him?_

_Isshin, Urahara, and a few of the Vaizard were also running, trying to evacuate whoever they could find, while Aizen and Gin watched almost triumphantly from their vantage point high in the air. With the injured transported back to Soul Society by the reversal of the switching spell, along with everything else that had been on the ground, there weren't enough rescuers to make even the slightest dent in the sacrifice. There wasn't enough time. _

_Finally, Ichigo sensed his friends, and thankfully, most of them seemed to be gathered together. Why did they have to be so far away? Pushing himself harder, he set off towards them, praying he had enough time at least for this._

"_Too late." The death sentence came too quickly. A column of deep purple light erupted from a building just ahead of Ichigo, almost directly between him and his friends. As he watched in horror, the column expanded, tearing the surrounding area to shreds and pulling it all in towards its core._

_No way to get to his friends now, not with the light expanding as rapidly as it was. No time to get to _any_body. Ichigo changed direction, trying desperately one more time to get around to where his friends lay, ignoring the voice shouting in his head that he was too late. _

_With horror, he spotted them at last, together on the roof of a building as if they'd been having a meeting before they'd fallen asleep. They were too close to the spreading destruction! He couldn't..._

_In the split second it took him to even begin to respond, they were gone, torn into the dark purple light. Ichigo let out a haunting scream of anger and despair. Too late...

* * *

_

Ichigo resolutely shook his head, forcing the memories to the recesses of his mind where they belonged. Now was not the time for guilt or anger. The reminder only served to strengthen his resolve about Aizen. He was an evil man, and even so much as allowing his actions was absolutely out of the question, to say nothing of _joining_ him.

Even if he wanted to try something as stupid as plotting behind Aizen's back, the man wouldn't have to look far to see the hatred burning in Ichigo's eyes. The idea could never work.

Not that he was seriously considering his hollow's words, anyway.

The orange-haired teen scowled. Unfortunately, the sheer ridiculousness of Aizen's offer wasn't the scariest thing about it; rather, it was the fact that—had he actually been kidnapped at this point in his original timeline—Aizen's words might have made sense to him. The Ichigo from this time had known nothing about Aizen, and close to nothing about Urahara. If Aizen had made his offer then, before the realities of the man's evil had been made known to him, Ichigo might have accepted.

Now, thankfully enough, that wasn't a problem. He had experience with Aizen, and he wouldn't let the man trick him. Finally, his foreknowledge from the future came in handy.

Which brought him to his next problem. The situation with his inner hollow, now that he thought about it, had many things in common; the main one being that if his hollow had told him this early on that he seriously wanted to be partners with him, Ichigo might have been foolish enough to take it. Because during those first few weeks that he'd become aware of his hollow's presence, the main emotion that had filled him was fear.

It wasn't because the thing within him was a hollow, either. That alone, he could have dealt with, could have found the resolution to fight it back no matter how powerful it got. He had never really been scared of the hollow's power, anyway, and the chance that it could kill him was a stupid thing to feel fear over. The same was true for any opponent Ichigo had ever faced.

No, the fear only stemmed from the fact that the monster within him was _himself_; not just in form, but in _everything_. From the moment it had first taken over him, he'd felt repulsed by the hollow; repulsed by the sheer brutality, mercilessness, and _hunger_ that he'd been clearly able to feel while they'd struggled for control. But all the same, he couldn't help feeling even more repulsed knowing that he himself was capable of that same brutality and mercilessness.

The hollow was a part of him; he was undeniably, appallingly Ichigo; the deepest, basest instincts he possessed and had repressed. Every one of the things he despised his hollow for, he could see himself doing if he wasn't careful. It was why he'd denied for so long his love of fighting for the sake of fighting; that was a trait of a monster and more than anything, Ichigo did not want to become like _him_.

If, back then, he'd thought for an instant that there could be hope, that the thing inside him could be controlled, could even perhaps have more of his _better_ qualities alongside the cruelty, he would have jumped at the chance, not only as a way to free himself from the imminent threat of a loss of control, but also to convince himself that no part of him was truly evil.

A naïve thought. As with Aizen, Ichigo had now seen too many things to ever believe that.

* * *

"_Deep, deep within every person is a honed instinct to kill, to destroy!" And the speaker of those words seemed to revel in that fact, judging by the huge grin on his face as he lifted his hand to his neck, fingers clenched like claws as though to mime tearing it open. In his other hand, the white Zangetsu was a blur, spinning through the air by the chain. "But you don't have any of that raw instinct!"_

_Ichigo's breathing was rough as he tried to pull himself from the rubble of the building that the hollow had smashed him into. He didn't have his sword—the hollow had destroyed it somehow—but there had to be something he could do._

_Effortlessly, the hollow snatched up the hilt of his white sword, abruptly stopping its wild arc. "You always have to fight rationally," he continued complaining, "always have to have a reason to fight! But it doesn't work, does it? When you try to use reason to kill your opponents, it's like you're trying to cut down your enemies with a sheathed sword!"_

_His hollow's grin only grew wider as he held Zangetsu up above his head. "That's why you'll _always_ be weaker than me, Ichigo!"_

_And then, before Ichigo could even move, the white sword was buried deep inside his stomach, pain burning all the way through his entire body._

_Ichigo could barely see his hollow's smirk through the haze of his shock, but suddenly his words were calm, slow, and deadly. "I won't have it, Ichigo. I don't know about Zangetsu-san, but I'm not going to tolerate a king who's weaker than me getting on my back, riding around, and getting us both killed._

"_If you're weaker than me... I'll crush you."

* * *

_

_Ichigo pushed himself up from the ground, one hand going up to his chest in confusion. The pain was completely gone; the _wound_ was completely gone. "Wasn't there a hole in my chest?" The words fell out of his mouth before his mind had even become clear enough to think properly. _

"_Kurosaki... kun..." Inoue was beside him, staring at him in worried disbelief. _

_Ichigo looked up at her. "Inoue... Are you all right?"_

_Tears in her eyes, she forced a smile and nodded. Ichigo looked away, almost wishing he hadn't seen through her façade to her true thoughts. She always had been good at pretending to be cheerful so that no one would worry. That smile was far from genuine._

_Before he could think further on that, a horrifying sight caught his eye. Shocked, he whirled around, nearly forgetting to breathe as he took in the sight._

_A short distance away, Ishida sat on the ground, looking as though he'd been thrown there. His breathing was shallow, his hair plastered to his face with sweat, but he was conscious, trying to force himself to stay upright. His torso had been completely soaked in blood, the crimson standing out starkly against the bright white and blue outfit the Quincy always insisted on wearing. His entire left hand was gone, his arm hanging uselessly by his side, but his biggest wound was the sword protruding from his stomach._

_A black sword. His sword. Zangetsu._

"_Ishida..." Ichigo could barely speak, bile rising in his throat at the sight._

_Ishida glanced up at him tiredly, offering him a smile. "Kurosaki... you finally woke up, huh?"_

"_That wound..." Ichigo swallowed hard, his eyes wide in horror. "Did I do that?"_

_He didn't have to receive an answer to know. Ishida's lips tightened, and he looked away._

_No, it hadn't been him... It was his hollow. It had taken control again._

_And because of that, yes; it _had_ been him. He'd nearly killed his own friend. He'd lost control, and it had nearly destroyed everything. He'd lost control...

* * *

_

The barrage of unpleasant memories nearly made Ichigo sick again and he lurched unsteadily to his feet, leaning against the cool white wall as he caught his breath.

No, after all that, there was no way his hollow had been left with any of his _good_ qualities; or at least not enough to ever matter. After all that...

"_I'm sorry..."_

Ichigo grit his teeth as the words from their most recent conversation came back to him. It had shocked him when the hollow had first said them, and it still baffled him now; which was probably the only reason why he wasn't in his head kicking his hollow's butt right now.

What did it mean?

Ichigo pushed off of the wall angrily, slowly beginning to pace the room as he contemplated.

The words had been genuine. The hurt and the guilt he'd seen in the hollow's eyes; those feelings were closely mirrored in the few sword blows they'd exchanged. No one could fake that, not even Aizen. The hollow really did feel bad that he'd messed things up, and he hoped Ichigo would give him another chance.

So what could it mean? He'd spent this long assuming that his hollow had never had any redeeming qualities, and the idea that he could have been wrong angered him, sent him into denial.

Did he _really_ want to be partners?

For all he'd ever done wrong, the hollow had never outright lied to him before. On the contrary, he always said exactly what was on his mind. He was very straightforward, his emotions generally easy to read, if a bit confusing most of the time, half-hidden behind that perpetual grin.

Besides that, he knew all too well just how much fear he'd always had in regards to his hollow. Fear clouded judgment, made reason near impossible. Had he misread the situation?

What if it was all an elaborate trick somehow? Hollows weren't exactly known for their willingness to work together with Shinigami. They were made of instinct, and that instinct always drove them to attack first.

As if his subconscious was arguing with him, a mental image of little Nell came to mind, standing stubbornly in front of him, defending him from a cero he'd been a little too slow to dodge. She had always been more than willing to work together with him, and Grimmjow had also turned on Aizen once Inoue had healed him, if a bit grudgingly.

Ichigo shook his head. Nell and the other Arrancar didn't really count. They were half-Shinigami. They'd regained their sense of reason and they weren't ruled by their instincts anymore.

Yet, thinking back on it, a being without reason didn't typically give lectures on the proper relationship between a Shinigami and their zanpakutou, or come up with elaborate riddles and metaphors on a regular basis. But that was just more that stemmed from him being a part of Ichigo, right?

With a harsh sigh, Ichigo dropped back down onto the bed, holding his head in his hands. This whole thing refused to make sense, and it gave him a headache just thinking about it.

What else could he do, though? He'd learned the hard way that trying to ignore his hollow and wish the whole problem would go away only worked for so long. Sooner or later, he'd have to make a decision of some sort and—

Abruptly the wall across from him exploded, chunks of it flying at him through the swirling dust. Alarmed, Ichigo started to scramble to his feet, reaching for his sword.

When he spotted the room's new occupant, though, he relaxed. A scowl fell easily into place as he leaned back, leveling a glare at the opening. "The door is unlocked, you know," he said boredly.

The grinning, blue-haired Arrancar strode further into the room, scoffing derisively. "Who uses doors?" A few appreciative chuckles sounded from dark forms in the settling dust as several of his fraccion followed him in.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Most normal people do," he returned. "But then, the term 'normal' never has applied to you."

Grimmjow laughed, leaning over and jamming his hands into his pockets. "Why would anyone ever want it to? And speaking of not normal, who and what are you?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo," he introduced himself nonchalantly, feeling a bit strange that he had to do so. "Shinigami representative."

One of the fraccion snorted. "A Shinigami?" he asked sarcastically, a smirk growing on his face. "Nooo, never would have guessed. And we thought the all-black get-up was just for show."

"The name's Grimmjow Jaegerjaques," Grimmjow said with a grin. "And don't forget it, Shinigami."

Ichigo could only roll his eyes again. "Trust me, I won't."

To Ichigo's surprise, Grimmjow's fraccion took the chance to introduce themselves one by one as well.

"I am the Undécimo Arrancar, Shawlong Qufang." The tall, thin fraccion with the almost knight-like helmet gave a short bow.

"Arrancar Trece, Edorad Liones." A larger man with long red hair on one side and short black hair on the other smirked at him.

"Arrancar Quince, Ilforte Granz." The long-haired blond man gave a short, airy salute.

"Arrancar Dieciséis_, _D-Roy Linker." The shortest of the fraccion showed his oddly squared-off teeth as he grinned, raising a hand up briefly as if to steady his large, bandage-wrapped hollow mask as he nodded.

The fat Arrancar hanging back near the wall didn't bother with an introduction at all, standing hunched slightly over, hands clasped behind him.

A frown appeared on Ichigo's face as he nodded slowly to acknowledge the ones who'd spoken, suddenly a little wary. He knew Grimmjow, of course, but his fraccion were kind of a mystery to him. The only one he'd even seen before was D-Roy, and the small Arrancar had died not five minutes after Rukia started fighting him. The others had all been defeated not long after that, taken down by Renji, Toushiro, Matsumoto and Ikkaku.

Consequently, he had no idea what kind of people they were. Grimmjow had never mentioned them, or even seemed at all concerned that they'd been killed. To be honest, Ichigo had kind of forgotten about them; the idea of Grimmjow having fraccion at all was a little foreign to him.

He supposed that he wouldn't have to worry about them too long, though. It had only been a week or so after rescuing Rukia that the Arrancar first began to appear in Karakura town, and...

Ichigo's thought came up short. The Arrancar wouldn't appear in Karakura town this time around. Ulquiorra and Yammy had only come before because Aizen had told them to check up on _him_. If he wasn't there, then there would be no reason to send anyone. No crater in the middle of the park, no injuries, no death, and Aizen wouldn't have a chance to see Inoue's abilities either! Soul Society wouldn't send backup to Karakura town, but Grimmjow's group wouldn't attack them anyway, so—

His racing thoughts were interrupted by a sharp crack upside his head, knocking him into the wall beside the bed. "Ow! Hey, you-!" Ichigo glared at Grimmjow, who wasn't even pretending not to be the one who'd hit him.

"A bit spacey, this one," Ilforte snickered at him, folding his arms. "Was he this bad before, do you think, or is this just a result of my brother's prodding?"

"Little here, little there, probably," Edorad said with a smirk. "Of course, it's surprising enough that he looks as good as he does, considering Szayel Aporro's usual style."

D-Roy laughed annoyingly. "_That_'s your definition of looking good?"

"Eh, it's a comparative thing."

Ichigo tried hard not to turn red, mentally yelling at himself for letting his guard down so easily. Quickly, he got to his feet, grabbing Zangetsu. "Shut up. Knock it off," he said angrily, using a familiar scowl to hide his embarrassment.

It was hard to think of Grimmjow as an enemy after all the time they'd been working together; the closest he could come in his head was friendly rival. Spacing out in front of Grimmjow in his own time might have earned him a blow similar to the one he'd just gotten, but here it could actually be dangerous. He would have to be careful not to let himself slip again.

The others didn't even flinch as he unsheathed his blade, simply continuing to snicker at him. Grimmjow smirked, brushing Zangetsu aside lightly as he looked Ichigo over. "Nah, Szayel doesn't mess stuff up when he's trying to study it," he mentioned, totally ignoring Ichigo's words and instead responding to his fraccion. "The kid must have done something to interest him."

"A good point," Shawlong acknowledged, the whole group continuing to ignore Ichigo's fuming. Slowly, he turned to face Ichigo. "Why are you here in Las Noches, Shinigami?"

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "Like I know," he shot. "It wasn't exactly by choice."

"Aha," Edorad snapped his fingers. "Aizen-sama returned the other day as well. Could it be that he wants to study the kid, too?"

"What'd you do, kid?" Ilforte asked curiously.

Ichigo glared at them all. "Quit calling me that. My name is Kurosaki Ichigo," he growled, flaring up his reiatsu in an attempt to appear threatening.

Grimmjow laughed, his stance shifting almost imperceptibly, suddenly ready to spring an attack. "Very scary," he complimented sarcastically. "All right, Kurosaki. How strong are you?"

Ichigo contemplated this solemnly, his expression going hard. To be honest, he didn't really know the answer to that. Since he'd gone back in time, his strength seemed to have diminished to some degree, but it was hard to tell how much of that was because he had tried to force his exhausted body too far, and how much was an actual decrease in ability. There was really only one way to tell.

Tightening his grip on Zangetsu's hilt, Ichigo swung it out in front of him, holding it parallel to the ground and channeling reiatsu through the blade. "You want to test me, Grimmjow?"

The blue-haired Arrancar grinned in anticipation, leaning forward and gesturing back at his fraccion. "Fall back. This one's mine."

Ichigo grinned, too. With all the frustration and headaches he'd had in the last day, he needed a good fight to vent, and Grimmjow had always been a great sparring partner. He never had been able to deny his love of fighting for long.

As Grimmjow's fraccion moved back into the hallway, Ichigo released the energy he had built up. "Bankai!"

* * *

"There! Finished!" For the past few days, there had been a fairly solemn, subdued air throughout Soul Society, especially amongst the Ryoka, but now Ishida couldn't help the note of triumph in his voice as he held up his finished creations to the light.

From across the room, Inoue looked up curiously. "What have you been working on?" she wondered aloud.

Ishida smiled. "Outfits for all of us, so we don't have to wear these Shinigami uniforms home. I tried my best to replicate from memory what we were wearing when we came here. Here, see? Here's Sado-san's!"

The large, strong teen didn't seem to be particularly impressed by the shirt that Ishida had fashioned, especially the large Quincy cross on the front. But then, he never really seemed to be particularly impressed by anything, so Ishida took his grunt of affirmation and the fact that he actually wore it to be good signs. He beamed. "I did, of course, add a few of my own touches to them," he mentioned.

Inoue looked surprised as she stared down at the shirt he had created for her, pulling it away from herself to look at it. "It's..."

A little embarrassed, Ishida hurriedly explained. "I couldn't get the dye to work quite right, so the design on the side didn't come out the way it used to be. Instead, I used lace as an accent here, and then because I had some left over, I added some corsages to the bottom there."

She smiled, pleased and a little astonished by it. "It's cute!" she exclaimed.

"R-really?" Ishida tried to hide his pleasure at that, adjusting his glasses. "Well, I hoped you'd like it."

"I do!" Inoue stared at it some more. "How did you know my measurements?"

Ishida shrugged. "I guessed," he admitted. "Anyway, I also made this dress for Kuchiki-san, like she used to wear at home. I know she said that she won't be coming back with us, but I figured she'd at least want kind of a souvenir of us."

Inoue examined the dress admiringly, but there was a far-off look in her eye now. "It's very pretty... You're very good at this, Ishida-san."

Ishida inclined his head politely. "Thank you," he said humbly, feeling a little hesitant. Part of him hoped she wouldn't notice how much more time he'd spent on her outfit than on anyone else's. The other part of him hoped she would.

But, of course, her mind wasn't really on the clothes at all, and neither was Sado's. "Ishida-san," he spoke up finally. "When you say coming back with us..." he trailed off meaningfully.

Uncomfortably, Ishida pushed his glasses further up on his nose, even though they hadn't really fallen down in the first place. He knew this would come up eventually. "The Soul Society has dropped all charges because of the circumstances with the Shinigami traitors, and school is going to be back in session soon. I assumed that we would be going home."

Inoue frowned at him, and then slowly shook her head. "Ishida-kun... We're staying here with Kuchiki-san, to help rescue Kurosaki-kun."

Sado silently nodded in agreement.

The dark-haired Quincy let out a short sigh. "I figured that you would," he admitted. "You know that Soul Society isn't planning a rescue mission of any sort until they've finished recovering from everything else and they've had time to send scouts and such, right? And even then, it's not going to be much of a rescue mission; there's just not enough resources to-"

"I know all that," Inoue informed him, her face stubborn. "But if he's in trouble, I can't just stay at home. Sado-san and I have both made our decisions."

Ishida tried one more time. "These new opponents, the ones who took Kurosaki... We were all crazy enough taking on Soul Society's forces. These new guys are going to be even stronger."

Sado nodded again. "We're staying to train," he said firmly, his tone stating clearly that nothing would change his mind about this.

A fire had sparked in Inoue's eyes and she nodded as well. "I don't want to do nothing but stand on the sidelines while everyone else fights again. I want to become as strong as I can."

Ishida turned away, his hand coming up automatically to adjust his glasses again. "I see."

He knew what she meant—he'd watched her hold herself back when she wanted to run in to help; stopping herself because she knew that she'd just be in the way. In a lot of ways, he felt the same. Having been stripped of his Quincy powers, there was nothing he could do to fight even the smallest hollows that appeared in Karakura town now.

"You don't have to stay," Sado said slowly, "just because we do."

The skinny teen frowned, reminded again that the others knew about his condition, thanks to Kurosaki's unnecessarily loud proclamation. How the orange-headed jerk had found out about his loss of power was beyond him, but he'd been quick enough to label Ishida essentially useless in that last fight. Sado was more subtle about it, but that was mostly because he didn't talk much. His comment had been a fairly clear suggestion to go home before he got hurt any further.

"Why would I stay?" he returned quickly, shoving his glasses back up onto his nose. It hurt his pride to follow that suggestion, but there was really nothing else he could do, and he had plenty of excuses to hide behind. "I don't owe Kurosaki anything. I didn't come here for him in the first place, and I'm certainly not going to break into Hueco Mundo for him. This doesn't concern me, and I have my grades to think about."

Inoue nodded understandingly. "That's okay," she said softly, obviously seeing right through his list of excuses.

Ishida shrugged, still not turning to face them. "I do worry about leaving you two here in the middle of all these Shinigami," he mentioned honestly. The thought that Kurotsuchi Mayuri was still alive somewhere particularly bothered him.

Inoue opened her mouth to speak, but Ishida went on, "But, I suppose nothing I say is going to change your minds." Not that he really wanted them to. If they wanted to get stronger and try to rescue Kurosaki, then all the better for them. "So just be careful, okay? Especially around twelfth division."

Smiling brightly, Inoue nodded again. "We'll be careful," she promised. "You be careful too, okay?"

Ishida had to smile as well. She said that as if _he_ was the one that would be doing anything dangerous. "I will."

* * *

This is a _lot_ shorter of a chapter than I'm used to writing, but that's mostly because I wanted to get it out as quickly as I could so that I could explain myself. I was going to end the chapter right after that first scene, but I was told I needed something to balance it out, so I put in this sort of interlude with Ishida and everyone.

But even with that, this breaks a record for me: it's only been a little over two weeks since my last update. o.O wow. That's really weird.

Yeah, don't expect that to happen again anytime soon.

I started writing this chapter way earlier than I'd originally anticipated starting, mostly because of the number of reviews I got wondering about Ichigo's personality. I hope I've managed to explain myself now, and hopefully you'll be a bit more sympathetic towards poor Ichigo. He's been through a lot. Give him a break.

I probably should mention, though, that I am a girl. I do my best to keep as many of the characters in character as I can, and I work especially hard on Ichigo and his hollow's characterizations, but I definitely do not claim to know exactly how the male brain works. I think I've done a pretty good job, but if you have comments or concerns, feel free to tell me. The existence of this chapter is proof enough that I listen to my reviewers.

On a random note, the spellings of the names and their Arrancar numbers came from an online Bleach wiki thing. So, I hope they're right. (Unlike my first chapter of Feeling Hollow where I insisted on spelling it Grimmjaw...)

Also, the timing of the events of the interlude: Technically, this scene takes place a week after Rukia's rescue and what I'm showing with Ichigo is only a few days after it, but I needed some sort of interlude here... So, just so you know that I am aware of it. The timeline's not actually screwy here. Er, you didn't see anything. These aren't the droids you're looking for. um. Right.

On another random note, I really really hate this site's Quickedit thingy that likes to kill my dividers. -.- (shakes fist)

Okay, so, a final note: I've mentioned this before, but there are **not** going to be **any pairings** in this story, especially not slash pairings. Just thought I'd clarify that, after some of the reviews I've gotten.

Thanks to Obi Quiet and Katie for all the help you give me. =D You guys are awesome.

Other than that, not much else to say but: Hope you liked the chapter! Please leave a review with your thoughts! =D

-Daricio


	5. Decisions Must Be Made

Hey, all! Going to try to keep my author notes short this time...

Thanks to all of you for the support you've given me with this story! I really enjoy writing it, so I'm glad that you enjoy reading it!

And thanks to Obi, to Shells, and to Katie for all the help you've given me in writing this! I couldn't do it without you!

I should probably give a short summary of the events up till now, since it's been so long since my last update. So, here goes: In the beginning, Ichigo traveled back in time and tried to stop Aizen from getting the Hougyoku from Rukia. He kind of epic failed in that, and Aizen took him captive, hauling him off to Hueco Mundo. Once there, he received an offer from Aizen to join him, which he attempted to refuse. Last chapter, Ichigo spent a lot of time thinking about Aizen's offer, as well as his inner hollow's strange behavior, and was interrupted by Grimmjow looking for a fight.

* * *

The sound of blades clashing rang through the otherwise still air of Las Noches. Ichigo twisted sharply to duck under Grimmjow's next blow and aimed another hit at the Arrancar's torso.

Grimmjow dodged it, of course, but Ichigo had expected that. The Arrancar spun, aiming a kick at his head, but the orange-haired teen had already moved, shoving hard off the air with one foot to flip backwards, avoiding the attack. He was definitely glad that he'd long ago become used to fighting in mid-air here in Hueco Mundo.

Jumping aside to put some distance between them, Ichigo watched the blue-haired Arrancar carefully, his breathing only just beginning to grow short. Grimmjow seemed content to study him as well, a large grin on his face.

"You're pretty impressive, Kurosaki!" he called out to him. "Much better than I'd expect from some Shinigami!"

Ichigo smirked back at him. "Good to hear," he returned, feeling more confident than he probably had a right to. "Wish I could say the same for you!"

"Cheeky brat!" Grimmjow laughed, his grin growing wider as he crouched down to ready himself for another leap towards the teen. Ichigo readied his sword as well, trying to anticipate the direction of the Arrancar's next move.

Thankfully, Ichigo already knew every one of Grimmjow's usual fighting strategies, and he could see the next feint—and the cero aimed at his face that would likely accompany it—coming a mile away. The moment Grimmjow's muscles tensed to attack, Ichigo moved, jumping forward unexpectedly and deftly parrying his blade aside, immediately dropping into a crouch several feet below him.

Surprised, and already halfway through charging his cero, the Arrancar had to shift tactics quickly to avoid Ichigo's upward blow. He didn't bother stopping the cero, though, and it blasted a large hole through a nearby wall, revealing yet another hallway, this one lined with pale red pillars.

Ichigo gave it a passing glance before focusing quickly back on his opponent. He had kind of hoped the hole would lead to the wide, open daylight area from before, but he supposed the large, dull white room they'd ended up in would have to do, since he didn't know how to get anywhere in this place. He wasn't about to ask about it, either; not when he'd technically never been there before.

When Grimmjow attacked again, adding in a quick sonido, Ichigo was ready, swiftly jumping back out of the way. Not quite fast enough this time, his efforts earned him a shallow cut across one forearm before he could counter, swinging his blade in a wide arc.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" The black, red-tinged energy tore through the air, but the blue-haired Arrancar just ducked out of the way. Ichigo had hit him with the attack already several minutes ago, giving away the element of surprise too early before he'd even thought about it, and now Grimmjow expected it. He laughed as the wave blew past him, putting another good-sized hole in the opposite wall.

Ichigo grimaced a little at the obvious decrease in his speed. Plain and simple, he'd obviously lost much of his former fighting ability as a result of the time traveling, and that irked him to no end. His mind knew what he used to be capable of, but his body just hadn't built up the capacity to contain and control that much reiatsu yet, and his muscles weren't used to the strain of his Bankai.

Still, it did seem to be coming back, at least to some extent, as he forced his body to move. He wasn't nearly as ridiculously slow as the very first, pathetic time he'd fought Grimmjow and in fact, he'd managed to keep up with him fairly well, considering. The Arrancar had already started to push Ichigo's speed to its limits despite the fact that he hadn't released his ressurecion yet, but on the other hand, Ichigo hadn't needed to use any of his hollow powers yet, either.

Breaking out of his thoughts to focus on the battle, Ichigo took the initiative this time, launching himself at Grimmjow once more. He definitely still stood a chance in this fight. The blue-haired Arrancar's usual strategies were always fairly straightforward, and that was amplified now, since he hadn't truly started taking the battle seriously. On top of that, Ichigo still had a few techniques that tended to throw Grimmjow off even when he was actually expecting them.

A shower of sparks flew up between the two blades as they clashed, and Ichigo lost himself in the intricate dance of the fight. Leaping to the side, twisting, ducking the return blow, swinging his own sword as hard as he could and dodging once again, ignoring the massive strain on his body and just enjoying the challenge.

Still grinning widely, Grimmjow matched his movements blow for blow; every swing of his sword was blocked by that of his opponent and he in turn blocked every blow aimed back at him.

The Arrancar cackled as their swords locked again, his bright blue eyes flashing with the thrill of battle. "Is that all you've got?" he demanded, a hint of disappointment in his tone. "Your Bankai increases your speed, but you're still barely keeping up with me, Kurosaki! You're better than I expected, but nowhere _near_ what I'd call a threat!"

A smirk spread across Ichigo's face at Grimmjow's assumption that he'd already reached his limits. Annoyingly, underestimating him was a rut that many of Ichigo's enemies seemed eager to fall into; but every time they did, he proved them dead wrong. Grimmjow—strange as it was to think of _him_ underestimating him again—would be no exception.

Shoving hard against Grimmjow's blade, Ichigo dropped to a crouch and moved to swing towards his legs. Anticipating his move, the Arrancar jumped aside, turning to aim a kick at him, and that was all the opening Ichigo needed. Instead of completing his attack, two flash steps to the side and back around brought him almost directly behind and slightly below his opponent.

The moment Grimmjow realized where he was, he whirled, but it was too late; Ichigo had him right where he wanted him. Easily ducking the Arrancar's wild return swing, he put all his strength into his attack, aiming for the weak spot just between the arm and ribcage and beginning to channel energy into his blade for a Getsuga Tenshou.

Evidently, Ichigo didn't have Grimmjow's fighting techniques down as well as he thought he had. Instead of trying to use his sword to block Ichigo's attack, the Arrancar surprised him by dropping it completely, reaching down and grabbing Zangetsu's thin, black blade to stop it dead in the air. Blood from his now sliced-up hand dripped down Zangetsu's length, but the attack had missed its target.

And now he had Ichigo's sword trapped. Ichigo's eyes went wide as his opponent's dangerous grin spread triumphantly across his face. "Gotcha, Shinigami!" he said almost hungrily, and then he thrust a cero down towards Ichigo's head.

Cursing to himself, Ichigo tried to twist out of the way, dropping one hand from the hilt of his sword to avoid the blast. He succeeded, barely, but the waves of energy radiating from the attack still knocked the wind out of him.

Half-blinded with sudden desperation, the orange-haired teen lashed out with what strength he could one-handed. The Arrancar didn't seem fazed by the counter-attack at all, and the next thing Ichigo knew, the flat palm of Grimmjow's hand connected solidly with his chest.

A split second later, the room's features seemed to blur as the blow sent him flying backwards at an incredible speed. Immediately, Ichigo braced himself, trying to build up enough reiatsu to shield himself from blunt impact. The room wasn't that big; he'd go through the wall in a second.

The moment the thought registered, he smashed into it, punching what little breath he still had out of his lungs. The harsh collision slowed him down, but not enough to keep him from crashing straight through a second wall, and then a third, rubble raining down around him as he fought desperately to catch his balance and his breath.

Finally, his feet—followed a split second later by his right shoulder, and then his knees—came into contact with the floor, and this slowed him enough that he came sliding to a halt on his back.

Gasping, he took a quick assessment of himself. He still had Zangetsu clenched tightly in one hand. No broken bones that he could tell, though his whole body ached. This wasn't helped at all by the fact that he apparently had a large piece of jagged concrete trapped under his back, or that similar pieces had scattered themselves on top of him.

As far as being punched through multiple walls went, though, it actually wasn't all that bad. He'd had worse. Shifting a particularly large chunk of debris off of his stomach, Ichigo began trying to get up.

It was about then that he noticed that while his body had landed across uncomfortable bits of concrete, his _head_ rested against something comparatively quite soft... and round. Slowly, Ichigo tilted his head up, peering through the settling dust with a sinking feeling as he spotted an imposing man standing over him.

He was a heavy-set, unfamiliar old man—maybe even rivaling old man Yamamoto for how ancient he looked—dressed in the usual white Arrancar uniform, and the remains of his hollow mask formed what almost looked like a crown on his head. The creepy battle scar across one eye only magnified the effect of the disdainful glare he had focused on the orange-haired teen who lay on his feet. Expectantly, he cleared his throat.

For a long moment, Ichigo could only stare up at him. "Um..." he said intelligently. This had never happened before. What was he supposed to do, apologize for having been hit through a wall?

With a scoff, the man gave Ichigo's head a rough kick, freeing his feet, and turned to walk away, the whole time giving him a look like he'd stepped in something disgusting. As he strode out of the room, muttering in a low voice, Ichigo distinctly caught the words "disrespectful hooligan".

Slowly, Ichigo rolled over and sat up, holding a hand to his head in confusion as he watched the Arrancar disappear through a doorway. That was weird.

For one thing, he didn't think he'd ever seen that guy before. Was he an Espada that Ichigo had never met, or possibly a fraccion? For that matter, he could very well just be some random numeros. Ichigo didn't really know how many had been made by this point, and he was pretty sure Nell had said that the numeros lived in Las Noches too.

From the feel of his reiatsu, though, he doubted that. The guy exuded the type of sheer arrogance that screamed "Espada." (Or possibly "Byakuya.")

Vaguely, he wondered which one he was; there were several he'd never come across during his initial trip to Hueco Mundo.

More importantly, though, the guy hadn't seemed to care that there was a Shinigami crashing through Las Noches' walls so much as he'd cared that the specific room Ichigo had crashed into disturbed whatever he'd been doing. Was his presence here really so insignificant to everyone?

For that matter, wasn't he supposed to be a prisoner here or something? Nobody seemed particularly intent on keeping him locked up anywhere. Considering their treatment of Inoue even _after_ she'd "joined" them, this was rather surprising.

Not that he was complaining. Just... confused.

Footsteps sounding from behind cut through his thoughts, and Grimmjow's dark form appeared at the edge of the large hole in the wall, silhouetted in the still settling dust. "Oi! You still alive in there, Shinigami? You're sure taking your sweet time getting back up again."

A smirk appeared on Ichigo's face again as he got to his feet, gripping Zangetsu's hilt in both hands as he focused his attention back on their battle. Yeah, he definitely wasn't complaining about this.

As swiftly as he could, using the dust as a cover, Ichigo leapt forward and swung his blade. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

Grimmjow flinched at the sound of his voice, but couldn't move quickly enough to duck the energy blast. The force sent him back through the wall he'd just entered from, breaking another hole in it and opening the way further into a large hallway with a strangely blue-tiled floor.

Immediately, Ichigo went after him, sword held high for another strike. The Arrancar dodged and retaliated with his own sword, a loud snarl escaping from his lips.

Ichigo smirked as he ducked back away from the blade and went to attack again. Grimmjow always had hated his sneak attacks, but really, it was his own fault for making so much rubble for Ichigo to hide behind in the first place.

Still, the anger was making Grimmjow's attacks come faster and with more coordination. The Shinigami had finally proven annoying enough for him to fight at full strength. Ichigo suspected he'd release his sword soon. He grinned in anticipation, despite himself.

Swiftly, he ducked under another kick from his opponent, immediately leaping to the side to avoid the accompanying sword blow, then aimed another Getsuga back the other direction. Grimmjow leapt over it and came at him again.

As he swung, his blade flashed in the light of a distant blue sky, and Ichigo found himself distracted as he noted the newly blown-open gap that led—finally!—to the huge fake-daylight area he'd fought in before.

Grimmjow's sword only met air as Ichigo dodged again, and then the Arrancar was forced backwards toward that opening by another blast from Ichigo. No damage was inflicted by the blow, but the blue-haired man quickly realized what Ichigo had noticed and leapt back to land on the sand below. Now, the two of them really had room to fight!

Ichigo smirked as Grimmjow held his sword out in front of him and slammed the fingertips of his free hand, clenched dangerously into claws, onto the flat metal of the blade. "All right, you asked for it! The real battle starts now, Kurosaki!" he yelled.

Swiftly, Ichigo crouched down to a defensive position and brought his left hand up to his face. If Grimmjow was about to release, that was his cue to move up to _his_ next ability, too. Reaching within, he grabbed hold of the mask, his hollow powers, and—

"_What? Hey!_"

Ichigo flinched, stumbling forward as his hollow's sharp exclamation, accompanied by a harsh mental shove against Ichigo's pull, caused him to let go in surprise. He dropped to one knee as he tried to figure out what had just happened, his whole face going deathly pale.

Somehow, instead of taking hold of his hollow _powers_, he'd only managed to grab his actual _hollow_, yanking him closer.

"_What was _that_ for?_" the hollow complained loudly, giving him the mental equivalent of a cuff upside the back of his head. "_Don't toss me around, you moron! What are you doing?_"

"Kk—Y-you—Gyack..." Ichigo shuddered, holding his forehead in suddenly shaky hands, trying not to be sick. He'd just almost _thrown_ his hollow into control of his body. How could he have been so stupid to forget he hadn't defeated him yet? He couldn't access his powers like this!

From below, Grimmjow laughed at him, having stopped his release to watch Ichigo's plight. "What was _that_, Shinigami?" he mocked. "Trying to defeat yourself before I even get a chance to start?"

"S-shut up," Ichigo growled, pushing himself to his feet again, trying to regain his composure.

Right. No hollow powers. None that he could use right now, at any rate. He held Zangetsu ready in front of him, focusing back on Grimmjow. Fine. He could still do this. He'd sparred against Grimmjow without the use of his hollow mask before.

"_Hollow powers?_" The hollow's voice sounded confused and a little disgruntled. "_That's what that was about? Look, if you want my help, partner, _asking_ usually works better than grabbing._"

Ichigo grit his teeth, trying to ignore the other presence in his mind. "_Later,_" he bit out. "_I'll deal with you later._"

For a moment, his hollow hesitated, as though about to retort. He finally just gave a mental shrug and retreated back to Ichigo's mental world. "_Che. Whatever. Don't die._"

Ichigo's awareness of the outside world came back to him in the form of Grimmjow suddenly gripping the front of his shihakushou, lifting him up an inch or two off the ground. "Done already, Kurosaki? You disappoint me."

Instinctively, Ichigo curled up and planted both feet on Grimmjow's chest, pushing off to flip backwards and out of his grasp. Landing shakily on the soft sand several feet away, Ichigo readied his sword once more, determined not to let his focus slip again. "Shut up. I'm nowhere near finished, Grimmjow."

The Arrancar cackled. "All right, then! We'll see!" With that, he leapt forward at Ichigo again.

Easily blocking his attack, Ichigo scowled. Grimmjow was back to underestimating him, no longer taking the battle seriously. Did he really think he'd reached his limits? With an annoyed growl, he whirled, smacking away the Arrancar's kick with one arm as he went in for another blow.

The moment Grimmjow successfully ducked under it, Ichigo figured out why he wasn't fighting all-out anymore: he wanted to talk. "Seriously, though, what _was_ that just now?" he wanted to know, smirking at him as he jumped back away from his opponent. "Felt suspiciously like _hollow_ reiatsu for a moment there, Shinigami."

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "None of your business." Honestly, he didn't really care if Grimmjow knew he was a Vaizard—he'd obviously known about it in his own timeline—but he really didn't want to explain right now. He'd started fighting with Grimmjow to get his mind _off_ of this.

"Is that why Szayel was so interested in you?" Grimmjow's grin spread. "Because you're more hollow than you look? Man, that's boring."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Sorry to disappoint," he said sarcastically. "What did you expect?"

Grimmjow grinned at him. "Good point. Everything around here is a bit more hollow than it looks. I guess you fit in pretty well."

That comment brought Aizen's offer unwillingly back to Ichigo's mind, and he grit his teeth. "Shut up. I do not."

"Of course, you..." Grimmjow started to give a nonchalant remark, but suddenly he stopped, a glint of understanding in his eyes. "Aha, that's it. Aizen saw your power and wanted you to join him, didn't he? And you're trying to tell him 'no'."

Ichigo's scowl deepened. Stubbornly, he remained silent, gripping Zangetsu's hilt tightly.

Grimmjow tapped his sword lightly against his shoulder contemplatively, his expression suddenly serious as he looked Ichigo over, the boy's silence apparently confirming his guess. "You know, 'no' isn't actually one of your options. He acts all kind and compassionate, giving you a choice in the matter, but in the end, your choice is really either 'join or die'. That's it."

"I know," Ichigo bit out in irritation, looking away. Yeah, he knew. He'd been trying to avoid that conclusion in his thoughts, but he'd been told that before: by Grimmjow himself, wearing almost that same solemn frown.

* * *

"_You can't tell me you never cared about Aizen or his ideals, or you wouldn't have been working for him in the first place."_

_Grimmjow's expression went serious as he pushed off from where he'd been leaning against the wall and crossed the small 'living area' of their makeshift shelter. "Oh, I wouldn't, would I?" he asked, a dark humor suddenly veiling his tone. "Now you're trying to guess at my motives for joining Aizen?"_

_Ichigo let himself drop into a nearby chair with a sigh, ignoring the Arrancar as he approached. The other man had simply showed up at their camp earlier that day like he owned the place, with absolutely no explanation of where he'd been or what he intended to do there. They all assumed he was there to help them fight, since he hadn't attacked anyone, but his motives for doing so were still unknown._

_Hence their current conversation. The orange-haired Shinigami still wasn't sure what he'd done to make everyone think he should talk to Grimmjow, but there he was._

_Running his hand through his hair in frustration, Ichigo scowled, finally answering Grimmjow's remark. "I just don't understand why anyone decent would join up with him. All I've ever seen him do is lie, deceive, hurt people, destroy everything-"_

"_And show off massive amounts of power," Grimmjow interrupted with an addition of his own. He grabbed the back of a second chair, flipped it around backwards, and straddled it, leaning both arms against the back. "You want to know? Fine. Listen carefully, Kurosaki, 'cause I'm only saying this once."_

_Slightly surprised at that, Ichigo straightened, giving the Arrancar a curious look._

"_When I met Aizen, I was the leader of a group of Adjuchas. He showed us quite clearly that he had the power to take down our whole group without even drawing his sword if he really wanted to. You've seen what he's capable of. We couldn't even run from him." His teeth ground together. "Pisses me off just thinking about it."_

_A frown crossed Ichigo's face as he put the pieces together. "So you joined him just because he didn't kill you?" he guessed._

_Grimmjow laughed dryly. "No. We joined him so he _wouldn't_ kill us. He only gave us two options: Join, or die. Yeah, he covered it all with pretty words and offers of 'freedom from your instincts' and 'no more living in fear' by becoming Arrancar and tons of other crap, but that's basically what it boiled down to. I followed him, all right, but that didn't mean I liked the guy."_

"_Then why turn against him now and not earlier?" Ichigo wondered, still confused. "If anything, he's gotten even more powerful, now."_

_The Arrancar shrugged. "I never had a reason to before. It was boring as all get-out in Las Noches, but it wasn't terrible. Besides, even if all of the Espada and all of the fraccion had managed to set aside their differences and attack him together, he'd still have just killed us all."_

_Ichigo scowled. "Yeah, and like I said, he's even more powerful, now. Why bring Inoue to heal me? Why fight off Ulquiorra? And what are you doing here, now?"_

"_You've got the memory of a goldfish," Grimmjow scoffed at him, standing up and heading for the door. "I told you already. It's far more interesting here."_

_As Ichigo watched him go, he thought he understood. "You really think we actually stand a chance against Aizen?"_

_Grimmjow paused in the doorway for a moment, glancing back at him. "No," he stated coldly. "No, I don't. Your group is too rag-tag and small to do anything, especially with the rest of the Shinigami turned against you. If they hadn't done so, _and_ if you'd gotten a few more Espada on your side, then you might have become a vague threat, but as it is, no."_

"_Yet you're helping us, anyway."_

_Grimmjow smirked. "If you're going to die, might as well have fun and go out with style."_

* * *

Ichigo's heart sank just a little. They really never had stood a chance, and he definitely wouldn't stand a chance here on his own. Grimmjow was right, much as he hated to admit it. Either he joined him, or Aizen would kill him. That was it. The rest was just formalities and pretty words.

But he couldn't let either of those things happen! If he did, the future would be even worse than the last time, and everything he was doing would be worthless!

Unless...

For some reason, his inner hollow's words came back to his mind. _"Sure! You join him, and then you plot behind his back. Maybe get a few more of these Arrancar on your side. He did mention that none of them trust him. I wonder how many would be interested in a coup d'état."_

Grimmjow's words followed: _"If they hadn't done so, _and_ if you'd gotten a few more Espada on your side, then you might have become a vague threat."_

Ichigo scowled, the beginnings of a plan suddenly forming in his mind. Grimmjow would join him, and if he could find Nell out in the desert, he could get her help, too. He didn't really know many of the other Espada, but there had to be some who would turn against Aizen. And Soul Society hadn't declared themselves against him yet, that he knew of, so once they turned, they might actually have a place to go.

Except that Aizen would be watching for that from him. The Ex-Captain had already seen just how violently he hated him, and even if he did join up just to keep Aizen from killing him, he'd never be able to get away with something as large-scale as that. So, how...?

"_If you want my help, partner, just say so._" Ichigo wished that those words were just another memory, but his hollow was watching him expectantly from the back of his mind, looking slightly smug.

"_Shut up,_" Ichigo shot at him tiredly, and then he glared back up at Grimmjow, gripping Zangetsu's hilt again. "I came out here to fight, not to talk," he bit out.

He'd half-expected the blue-haired Arrancar to have attacked him or something while he'd been lost in thought, but for some reason, he just stood there, watching him carefully.

At Ichigo's words, a smirk spread across his face again. "Fine! I guess you get it, anyway. But you better quit spacing out in the middle of our fight, you got it?"

Ichigo scowled. "Shut up. I wasn't spacing out," he insisted, trying to ignore the sense of déjà vu at the words. Why did everyone always tell him that?

Grimmjow just laughed at him, holding his sword out once more. "All right! Hope you're ready for this! _Grind_, Pantera!" he called out, and he scratched fiercely down the length of the blade, suddenly pouring energy as he released it.

Ichigo readied himself for the new onslaught of attacks, not worried by the release. He couldn't use his hollow powers, but he'd given himself that handicap occasionally in their spars before, and he could hold his own. It'd be a _pain_, but he could do it.

Best of all, the challenge would definitely be enough to get his mind off of everything again.

Sand that kicked up into the air from the energy of Grimmjow's release provided a great smoke screen for Ichigo to hide behind again, and he flash stepped away and off to the right, powering up a Getsuga Tenshou.

Grimmjow's now feline form leapt at him from the dust, anticipating his move, and he smacked Zangetsu aside, causing the attack to shoot off target. Ichigo grimaced at the heaviness of the blow as he ducked several swift kicks. The blue-haired Arrancar's speed only went up when he released, and trying to keep up with him suddenly took all his effort.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" Ichigo fired off another attack, leaping upward to send it at him from above. Grimmjow twisted out of the way and slashed at him with a clawed hand, grinning madly.

Ichigo kicked sideways off of the air to avoid it and swung Zangetsu forward, trying to guess the Arrancar's next move and block it. He missed, and Grimmjow's next attack caught him in the shoulder, sending him spinning backward.

Landing unsteadily on the sand, Ichigo spun to face his opponent again, swinging down with another quick Getsuga. This one managed to hit, but Grimmjow just shrugged it off entirely, racing at him with his hand raised for another attack.

Ichigo moved to block, but before Grimmjow got even close, a blurred figure appeared between them, moving with the speed of a sonido.

Both combatants froze as they recognized Ulquiorra's thin form.

Grimmjow growled low in his throat, not moving from the crouched position he'd stopped in. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't blast you into next week for interrupting this, Ulquiorra."

The pale, black-haired Arrancar ignored him, glancing over at Ichigo and eyeing his wounds with mild disdain. Ichigo bristled slightly at the scrutiny; he knew what Ulquiorra thought of his abilities, and it ticked him off.

Without saying a word to him, Ulquiorra finally turned back to face Grimmjow. "Aizen-sama has requested the presence of the Espada at a meeting. He will be most unpleased if you are not there."

Grimmjow let out a snarl of frustration and Ichigo could almost feel his growing desire to charge up a cero rolling off of him. "Can't you see I'm busy? If you were _anyone_ else, I swear, I'd-"

Ulquiorra's deadpan expression didn't change. "That would be why Aizen-sama sent me, yes."

As Grimmjow fumed over that, Ichigo straightened, feeling somewhat awkward. Was Ulquiorra just going to ignore him, despite the fact that he was out wandering around, fighting people?

The answer to that was apparently yes. Not waiting for a confirmation from Grimmjow, Ulquiorra turned and strode away, ducking through the rubble of a nearby wall to enter one of the main hallways of Las Noches.

With an irritated yell, Grimmjow returned to his normal pre-release form, angrily sheathing his sword and stalking after Ulquiorra. "This isn't over, Kurosaki!" he shot back over his shoulder.

As Ichigo scowled after him, he disappeared into the hallway.

For a moment, Ichigo just stayed where he was, trying to decide what to do next. Then...

"Yare, yare... That wasn' nearly as entertaining as I'd hoped it'd be." At the sudden voice directly in his ear, Ichigo jumped a mile, flinching away with a startled yell and raising Zangetsu.

Ichimaru Gin stood not a foot away from him, staring after the place the two Arrancar had vanished with a look of disappointment on his face. Glancing over at Ichigo, he explained, "Those two don' get along well, ya see. I was kinda hopin' for a better reaction outta that. Ah, well."

Ichigo forced himself to lower his sword, though he still kept his eye on Gin warily. The other man didn't look as though he was about to attack, but that was never a good indication with him.

Gin gave him a smile, turning back and stretching his arms up behind his head in a relaxed manner. "Aw, come on. You don't gotta look so tense. Lighten up a bit. I'm not gunna kill ya."

"Coming from you, that's somehow not reassuring," Ichigo said dryly.

The older Shinigami laughed lightly. "Yeah, don' worry. Everyone else finds me creepy, too. So, likin' the place, so far? Roomy, ain't it?"

Ichigo wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he kept silent, continuing to watch him with a scowl.

Gin glanced at him again, tucking his hands into his sleeves in front of him as he folded his arms. "Not too chatty, are ya?"

"Not really. Why are you talking to me?"

"And rude, too! Yare, yare..." Gin shook his head, looking disappointed again. "I jus' figured ya might be hangin' around here for a while, and wanted to make sure ya felt welcome!"

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "I _won't_ be staying here," he stated forcefully. "As soon as I figure out how to get out of here, I'm leaving."

To Ichigo's surprise, Gin just shrugged. "Maybe for the best," he sighed. "If you can manage to figure out how to get around here, that is. The hallways move around, ya know. Very confusin'."

Before the orange-haired teen could respond, Gin went on with a creepy smile. "Still, ya seemed to be havin' fun just a bit ago. Weren't searchin' for a way out, then, were ya?"

"Shut up." Ichigo looked away irritably. "Just because I like to fight doesn't mean I want to join Aizen."

"Ah, I see." Gin nodded amiably, also turning away as though to contemplate a distant red tower thoughtfully.

Then he let the conversation drop, an awkward silence filling the air almost tangibly between them.

Ichigo shifted his weight from one foot to the other, the other man's presence continuing to make him uncomfortable. Gin, for his part, didn't seem to be affected by the silence at all, cheerfully inspecting their surroundings with mostly-closed eyes.

Finally, Ichigo couldn't take it anymore. There was no reason for either of them to stay there, and Gin obviously had nothing to say to him. With a scowl, he returned Zangetsu to shikai form and sheathed it, swinging it over his shoulder and into place on his back as he began stalking away.

"So, whaddaya think you'll do next?" Gin slipped into step beside him, speaking interestedly. "Gonna try lookin' for this place's exit, maybe?"

Ichigo grit his teeth and continued to walk, ducking back into the normal set of hallways. "Why are you following me?"

Gin shrugged lightly. "Jus' bored, I guess. With all the Espada in that meeting, you're the most interesting person to talk to 'round here, ya know."

"I'm sure." Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"Joinin' Aizen wouldn't be _so_ bad, ya know," Gin mentioned suddenly, folding his arms back into his large, draping sleeves. "It's got all kinds of perks!"

Ichigo gave him a sidelong, disgusted look, but finally decided to indulge him. "Oh?" he asked sarcastically. "What on earth could possibly interest me?"

Gin smiled back, his strange, squinted eyes making the expression creepy rather than comforting. "Lotsa things! I mean, if ya get good enough, ya might be able to reach Espada level. Work your way up in the ranks enough, and you could even fight in the upcoming war! That'd be entertaining, ne?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes, turning his head away contemptuously. "Sure. And be fighting against my _friends_. Try again."

"Hey, fightin' friends _is_ entertaining," Gin complained, seeming suddenly upset. "You're no fun."

Ichigo scowled. "You _would_ think so."

"Anyway, that's not all, of course." Gin shrugged a little. "You also hafta fight for your life all the time if ya wanna survive down there amongst all the Arrancar, so ya know you'll never be bored."

Ichigo stared at him incredulously. "Fighting for my life all the time is a good thing?"

"Sure! And ya get free health care, too! That Szayel guy knows what he's doin' in there. Makes weird modifications sometimes, but ya know, other than that, it's great!"

Gin was just messing with him, Ichigo realized then, telling him _bad_ things like they were good. His scowl returned to his face as he glared at the older Shinigami. "Just shut up. You're-"

"Though, y'know," Gin interrupted, looking thoughtful. "I guess it's not real fair of me to argue just one side of this. I should list the perks of you runnin' away, too."

Ichigo found himself growing even more annoyed. "Please don't."

Gin ignored that, gazing up at the hallway's ceiling as they walked. "First of all, there's an awful lot of annoying people here in Las Noches. You manage to get outside, and you'll wind up all by your lonesome out there, isolated forever in that sand. That'd be nice, right?"

The orange-haired Shinigami remained broodingly silent. That was true enough; even if he did get out of Las Noches, he had no real way of getting back to the living world from there. He'd be stuck in Hueco Mundo.

"Besides," Gin went on as though Ichigo was still listening to him. "If Aizen-sama sends Ulquiorra to go get ya, ya won't even have time to blink before he kills ya, so it'll probably be relatively painless. There are _much_ worse ways to die, ya know."

"Alright! That's enough!" Ichigo snapped angrily, whirling on him. "You've done nothing but irritate me the entire time you've been here, and-"

Gin held up both hands, sighing a little to himself. "Yare, yare! Seems I can't convince ya of nothin', huh? Okay, okay, I'll stop talkin' about that, then, if it makes ya happy."

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at him. "I'd rather you stop talking altogether," he shot.

"Can't do that, I'm afraid," Gin told him matter-of-factly, still smiling. "That'd just be boring."

Ichigo growled low, turning and trying to walk away from the jerk again.

Without moving, Gin called after him to ask, "So, I take it you'll be plottin' your grand escape, then? Need some help?"

"Help?" Ichigo stopped dead in his tracks, glaring back at him suspiciously. "What are you talking about?"

With a wide grin, Gin waved at him dismissively with one hand. "Well, not to brag, but I do know where the control room for movin' the hallways around is," he mentioned. "Somethin' like that would make gettin' out of here much easier, ne?"

Ichigo's mouth fell open a little as he stared at the silver-haired man. Was he seriously...?

A tiny flare of hope sprung up within him, and Ichigo tried to force himself not to let it grow. He was desperate, yes, but desperate enough to trust Gin, of all people?

"Wouldn' be hard," Gin mused, almost to himself. "It'd just take one good distraction to get everyone's attention away, really. Like that Espada meeting goin' on right now, for instance. Then, of course, you'd need someone to open a Gargantua gate for ya back to Soul Society. Or the livin' world, I suppose."

Ichigo swallowed hard. If Gin did what he said, he wouldn't have to worry about hallways moving around on him while he tried to get away.

Then, with that gate he was offering him, he would actually be able to get back.

And if he could get back, he could _actually_ get his information about the future to Urahara so he could _fix_ things.

"I thought," he said slowly, eyeing Gin carefully, "that you worked for Aizen."

Gin gave him a surprised, almost affronted look. "Hey, now. Don' go accusin' me of things! What would make ya think I wasn' workin' for him?"

Ichigo scowled at him. "But you just said that you would-"

Suddenly, Gin stood right beside him, leaning in uncomfortably close. Bringing a hand up to whisper conspiratorially, he smiled. "Truth is..." he started, speaking softly in Ichigo's ear, "I lied."

Just like that, he was walking away, not once looking back at Ichigo as he vanished around a corner.

Ichigo grit his teeth, his hands curling into fists at his side. That figured. That just figured. He should have known the jerk would try to pull something like that. He should have known!

With a loud growl of frustration, he whirled around and stalked off in the opposite direction.

* * *

"Okay, fine. Start talking. I'm listening. What _great_ advice do you have for me?" Ichigo kept a scowl on his face as he touched down on the buildings in his mind, walking towards his inner hollow.

With the moving hallways apparently leading him the right direction, he'd quickly found his way back to "his" room, and now he needed to deal with this. His other self had been hinting annoyingly this whole time that he had a plan he could use, and it was about time to at least hear it.

The hollow obviously hadn't expected his arrival or his question, and he glanced back at him over his shoulder in slight surprise, a smirk spreading quickly across his face. Turning to face Ichigo completely, he began to speak, and Ichigo mentally braced himself for what would most likely be some mocking comment about finally talking with him.

"Advice, huh?" His hollow's smug look didn't fade, but his words were anything but sarcastic. "Well, first off, Ichigo, you've really gotta start talking with your zanpakutou more often. You realize you spent more time during that last battle talking to _me_ than you did with Zangetsu-san? And you've made it pretty clear that you _hate_ me."

Ichigo blinked, his scowl faltering. "What? I talk to Zangetsu. He was-" he broke off as he realized that the last time he'd actually heard the zanpakutou had been before he'd even been taken to Hueco Mundo.

Swiftly, he whirled, searching the area. Zangetsu was nowhere to be found, just as it had been the last time he'd faced his inner hollow, and—

No, he _was_ there. Ichigo started as he spotted the zanpakutou standing on a pole several yards away to his right. Zangetsu watched him, a vaguely disapproving look on his face.

"Z-Zangetsu..." Ichigo wasn't sure what to say. He hadn't called on his zanpakutou because he honestly hadn't expected him to still be there, after the fiasco with his hollow. The last time, the hollow had absorbed him somehow, or something.

"Where were you, earlier?" he asked lamely. "When I came in here to talk to him?"

Zangetsu slowly raised an eyebrow. "I was here, Ichigo. If you would not see me or hear my words, you are the one to blame."

Ouch. Ichigo winced at that, feeling guilty. The only time a Shinigami and their zanpakutou had difficulty hearing one another was when their thoughts were too foreign to one another to understand. When he'd been here before, his focus had been on being angry with his hollow, and Zangetsu was always so calm...

"I'm sorry," he said roughly, looking away. Hadn't it _just_ been a few days ago that they'd understood one another enough for him to regain Bankai? Was he really so focused on other things that he couldn't acknowledge his zanpakutou every now and then?

Did it really have to take his_ hollow_ pointing it out for him to notice every time?

"Seriously, Ichigo. You'd think that I wouldn't have to keep giving you the same lesson over and over again." His hollow grinned at him. "We've gone over this before. You can't keep ignoring him if you want his help. Doesn't even take much! Just a simple, 'Okay, let's do this!' before battles! _Some_thing!"

Ichigo shot him a glare. "Alright, I get it. Shut up." He turned back to his zanpakutou. "I'm sorry, Zangetsu. I was caught up in other things. I forgot. I'll try to do better."

Zangetsu nodded. "Good." He paused, and then looked pointedly at the hollow. "However, this was not what you came in here for. You are purposefully distracting him," he told the hollow.

His hollow's grin widened. "Just getting my ideas together before I present them, Zangetsu-san. Besides, he _does_ need to talk to you, and he _did_ ask for advice."

Ichigo frowned, steeling himself once again to face his hollow. "Fine. Zangetsu's right; I came in here to talk to you. You keep implying that you've got a plan of some sort. Well, let's hear it."

"You probably won't like it," the hollow stated bluntly. "Mostly because it involves dealing with me more often. See, your main problem at the moment is that you can't get any of the others to work with you while Aizen is watching you like a hawk. He knows you hate him, so he'll be expecting you to do something like this."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "I figured that much out on my own, thanks," he intoned.

The hollow smirked. "I know. But Aizen also knows that you've got a problem with a certain hollow living in your head, supposedly trying to take control of you. And from what he's seen, that hollow doesn't have a problem with joining him at all."

Ichigo's mouth fell open a little. "You want me to let you take control," he accused, taking a step forward. "No way, not hap-"

"Not take control," the hollow backpedaled quickly, holding his hands up. "Just _pretend_ to. We stage a series of 'takeover attempts', ending with me supposedly in control, but really, I'm just there enough to hide your Shinigami reiatsu behind my hollow reiatsu. Other than that, you stay totally in control."

Ichigo paused, considering this as he watched his hollow suspiciously. The idea could potentially work, if he could act differently enough to make the change convincing. However...

"Give me one good reason why I should trust you." Ichigo gave his hollow a hard, steady look. "You're the one who suggested joining Aizen only to plot behind his back in the first place, so you can't tell me you'd never think of doing it to me, too. If you're close enough to hide my reiatsu, you'll also be close enough to shove me aside at any moment and take over yourself. Why should I trust you that much?"

"Other than the fact that you don't really have many other options?" the hollow asked dryly. He shook his head. "We're two halves of the same soul, partner. A soul divided against itself can't stand. You may not have many reasons to trust me—for that matter, _I_ probably wouldn't trust me, after some of the stuff I've seen in your memories—but if you want to get yourself out of this mess, you're going to have to."

Ichigo hesitated for a long moment, and his gaze wandered over to Zangetsu, who still watched him seriously from his pole.

Slowly, he let out a breath. "What do you think about all of this, Zangetsu?"

The zanpakutou inclined his head slightly to acknowledge his question. "I will support your decision, Ichigo, whatever it may be."

Ichigo frowned. That meant, basically, that he didn't want to take sides on this.

Yet, Zangetsu hadn't just outright rejected the hollow's plan, either, so he must have thought it was a viable option. Ichigo's frown deepened, and he looked back to his hollow, who was waiting for a response with his arms folded, a vague smile on his face.

With a sigh, Ichigo rubbed the back of his head, closing his eyes briefly in annoyance. "I'll think about it," he said roughly. "You were right; I don't like it. But I'll think about it."

"Good enough." The hollow smirked at him, looking somehow slightly relieved as he did so. Yet another expression Ichigo never would have thought he'd ever see on his face. "But just know, you're going to have to make a decision soon. Wait too long on this, and our fake takeover attempts won't seem legit. Or Aizen will just kill us before we can even try."

Ichigo grit his teeth, turning away from his hollow. "I know," he bit out. Without another word, he pulled himself up out of his mental world to get away from his hollow for a while.

Opening his eyes back in the room he'd been given, he let out another harsh sigh, scowling at the ceiling as he lay back on the bed. His options at the moment really, really sucked.

He had to join Aizen. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew that he wouldn't be able to escape Las Noches if he tried, and even if he did, Gin was right; he'd have no way of getting out of Hueco Mundo. He couldn't outright attack Aizen—not when he was still having troubles even sparring against Grimmjow. Fighting back wasn't an option. If he did, he would die trying.

Of course, even if he did join Aizen, he had no idea what, exactly, the ex-Shinigami captain planned for him to do. He wasn't exactly going to give him tasks like any he'd seen the other Arrancar given: Invading Karakura town? Guarding Las Noches against Shinigami intruders? Aizen couldn't watch him _all_ the time, and he couldn't make him attack his own friends.

Most likely, he'd be treated much like Inoue had when she'd joined them—not actually put to any tasks, and not allowed to leave the room without a guard. Basically a prisoner, in all but name.

On the other hand, if Aizen thought that Ichigo was actually truly on his side...

If he was given tasks like that, then escaping might be possible. Sabotaging Aizen's plans from the inside would be even better.

As his mind ran through the possibilities, he had to grudgingly acknowledge that the plan was a good one.

And it wasn't something he could pull off on his own, either. With his attitude earlier, Aizen would have to believe that a hollow takeover really had occurred. Even if Ichigo were to defeat his inner hollow and gain back his access to his hollow powers, there was no way he'd be able to mask his own reiatsu so completely on a regular basis for it to be believable. If his hollow was there to maintain that for him, however...

A low growl escaped from him as he rolled over onto his stomach, glaring at a nearby wall without really seeing it. Once again, it all came down to the problem of whether he could really trust his inner hollow. And once again, he couldn't come up with a decent answer to that.

Only a week ago, he would have said "no" in a heartbeat, but with everything that had happened in the past few days, somehow he could no longer be sure. His hollow was acting so differently than he remembered, and he couldn't figure out _why_. Even his hollow didn't seem to know why.

Waves of frustration flooded through him again, and irritably, he turned his thoughts back to his options as a whole. There really wasn't much choice: resist Aizen and die, go with Aizen and be locked up uselessly as he destroys everything again, or at least _try_ his hollow's offer.

The worst that could happen would be his hollow taking over again for as long as it would take to fight control back from him. Compared to the other two choices, that really wasn't that bad, was it?

Ichigo sighed again, his glare intensifying. He hated this more than he could even express, but he couldn't just blow off the entire idea. He hated it, but still, he had to try.

And he hated _that_ even more.

* * *

Tatsuki sat at her desk with her arms folded, ignoring the teacher's lesson, glaring across the room at a certain orange-haired boy, who was pretending very hard not to notice. It was only first period, and Tatsuki had already made the resolve to corner him as soon as lunch started.

When school had started up earlier that week, one of the first things that everyone noticed upon class beginning was the fact that both Ichigo and Chad didn't show up. Of course, the only reason everyone noticed was that Keigo had, as usual, overreacted, getting up to squawk that all of his friends had abandoned him. Mizuiro had tripped him, and then proceeded to spend the rest of the day calling him Asano-san, much to Keigo's horror.

Tatsuki hadn't really been paying attention to all of that, instead focusing on the fact that Orihime also wasn't at school. While she could care less about what trouble Ichigo and Chad were getting themselves into, her best friend's absence concerned her.

Especially since the more she thought about the girl's explanation of her plans for the break, the less that explanation made sense. Visiting relatives? But her brother had taken her away from any connections she had with her family when they'd moved out of their parents' house. Orihime hadn't had any contact with actual relatives since Sora had died. At least, not that Tatsuki was aware.

Her worry had only grown throughout the week as the three of them continued to be mysteriously absent. Tatsuki had to try her very best to ignore Keigo's increasingly unlikely theories regarding this, and tried to focus on her school work.

Even she had to admit, though, that it was rather strange that the only missing people in the class were Ichigo's friends. Ichigo himself, Chad, Orihime, and also...

Tatsuki let out a harsh sigh as the image of the short, black-haired girl that nobody seemed able to remember came into her mind again. Yet another baffling thing surrounding Ichigo. Kuchiki... Rukia, was it?

The girl had transferred into the school mid-year, been bizarrely close to Ichigo, and then had vanished again. And even Tatsuki herself had forgotten about her entire existence until this last week when she was contemplating disappearances.

Tatsuki didn't want to say "magic", but neither could she come up with a better explanation for an entire class—an entire _school—_to totally forget about somebody.

She could still sense Orihime, though, and had the general feeling that although she was far away, she was okay. She couldn't tell exactly _how_ she knew this, but she did, and that calmed her worries a little; at least enough to not go on a wild rampage looking for them all.

And then yesterday, Ichigo had finally returned to school. Not Orihime or Chad, just Ichigo. Except that it wasn't really Ichigo.

Not only did it just flat out not _feel_ like Ichigo, but he was acting incredibly strange. First, the moment he'd walked in, Keigo had attempted to tackle him dramatically, as usual. Instead of just knocking him aside, though, Ichigo had let out a strange yelp before being sent crashing to the floor of the hallway. Rather than get upset at Keigo for his over-enthusiasm, he had just pulled himself slowly to his feet, apologizing.

Keigo wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box, but even he could tell something was off. He and Mizuiro had both watched him suspiciously as he sat himself down in his chair. Others in the room seemed to notice, too, but nobody said anything.

Tatsuki had kept a close eye on Ichigo the rest of the day, and found herself further disturbed by his expression. Though he kept his normal scowl most of the time as he took notes, it almost seemed like a hastily plastered-on look, and it kept fading away from his face as his gaze slid wistfully out the window.

And occasionally, he would sneak interested looks around the classroom as well. The moment Tatsuki had realized that his attention was on the girls in the class—more importantly, on their chests—she'd made up her mind: something was really wrong here. Ichigo did not act like this. Lots of other people in the class seemed to think so too, and he got multiple stares throughout the day.

Her concern had only worsened when she'd tried to talk to him after school, to ask him what was up. He had seen her coming and, with an almost fearful look, packed up his bag faster than she'd ever seen him do before, slipped around her and left the classroom with a hurried, "See ya!"

Going to the door to call after him had revealed that he was just disappearing around the corner all the way at the end of the hall. She'd stood there for almost a minute gawking. He was fast.

She'd hoped to be able to confront him over his strange behavior this morning, but she hadn't been able to do that either, since he'd arrived late, scrambling to his seat several minutes after the bell had rung. The teacher didn't seem to think anything of it, simply continuing with her lesson as if nothing had happened.

With the reaction that Ichigo had to her the day before, Tatsuki figured he must know that she'd noticed his off behavior—behavior that hadn't stopped today either, she noted. Well, he wouldn't be able to get away during lunch. She'd make sure of it.

The classes till lunch went by almost painfully slowly, but Tatsuki's determination to talk to her old friend only grew as the time went by, especially every time he looked up to meet her suspicious glare with eyes wide with fear and immediately looked away.

Finally, the teacher dismissed them cheerfully. Tatsuki immediately stood, not even bothering to grab the food she'd packed in her bag, and went to Ichigo's side.

He hadn't gotten up yet, and he winced as he looked up at her. Then, his usual scowl fell into place. "What?" he snapped at her.

She wasn't fooled. "I need to talk to you. Now."

Ichigo shrugged at her. "Okay," he said uncertainly. "What?"

"Outside." She jerked a thumb at the door. "And don't you dare run off, or I will track you down and throttle you."

Ichigo swallowed hard, glancing at the window as if contemplating an escape. For a moment, Tatsuki was alarmed by the idea that he might actually attempt the three story drop to get away. He'd done it once before, after all, and...

Tatsuki frowned. What was she thinking? Ichigo was stupid, but not _that_ stupid.

Irritably, she forced her attention back to him. "Well, come on!"

Hesitating a moment longer, Ichigo silently got to his feet, still looking worried as he followed her sullenly out of the room. Tatsuki ignored the stares of Ichigo's other friends and led him down the hall, where hopefully nobody would interrupt them. Then, she turned to face him again, hands on her hips.

"Who are you? Where is Ichigo?" she demanded.

His eyes went even wider than they had been. "H-huh? What are you talking about?" he asked, taking a step back and bringing his hands up defensively. "Why would you ask me something like that?"

Tatsuki rolled her eyes. "Don't act like I'm stupid," she warned. "Everyone in the class has noticed you're acting weird. And anyway, you don't feel right. Who are you?"

He continued to stare at her for a moment, and then looked both ways down the hallway to see if anyone was listening. When he saw that the coast was clear, he slumped up against the wall behind him with a sigh, his sad attempt at maintaining a scowl melting from his features. "I _told_ them I was bad at this!" he moaned. "But no! 'Go fill in for him,' they said! 'This is important,' they said! 'Nobody will notice,' they said! Pah! Now look at the situation they've gotten me into!"

Tatsuki's eyes narrowed as she realized that she'd been right. It _wasn't_ Ichigo. "Who's 'they'? And who are you? Why are you impersonating Ichigo?"

The orange haired boy gave her a salute. "I'm Kon-sama!" He started to go on with a self-important smirk on his face, but wilted suddenly at the intensified glare she sent him at his use of 'sama'. His ego deflated in an instant, and he shrank back, trying to look small and insignificant. "Er... But _please_ just call me Ichigo. I'm... filling in for him, and it'd be bad if too many people found out."

"Why are you filling in for him?" Tatsuki asked suspiciously.

Kon hesitated before answering. "I can't talk about it," he insisted. "I'm not allowed to, or else-"

Tatsuki stepped closer to him, grabbing the front of his shirt and holding up her free hand in a fist. "Listen, 'Kon'. If you're supposed to be pretending to be Ichigo, you should know something about his friends. Here's lesson number one. I'm a black belt, national champion, and I _will_ kick your butt into next week if you don't tell me where my friend is."

Kon gulped, glancing both ways down the hall again. "I don't mean any harm," he exclaimed. "I'm just taking notes and stuff for him so he doesn't fail school when he comes back."

"Where. Is. He?"

Kon's gaze fell to his shoes as he gave a light shrug of his shoulders. "We don't really know," he admitted finally.

That didn't sound good. "Does this have anything to do with the fact that Orihime and Chad also aren't here?" Tatsuki pressed.

The orange-haired teen frowned. "Geez, you figured that out, too? I _told_ them this was a bad idea!" he lamented at the ceiling.

"Please tell me they're not missing, too." Tatsuki's grip on his shirt tightened as her worry increased.

Quickly, Kon shook his head. "No, no, they're fine! Inoue-sama and Sado-san are fine. They're..."

"But Ichigo _isn't_ fine," she concluded from his tone. Kon didn't deny it, squirming uncomfortably. Tatsuki asked again, "Where is he?"

Kon glanced away, as though searching for both verbal and physical escape routes. "You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you. There's a lot of... uh... And I don't know if Ichigo wants you to know, anyway."

He withered slightly under her glare. "Lesson number two," she stated, "I don't care what Ichigo wants. You know, and you're going to tell me." She gave him a look that let him know she wasn't taking no for an answer.

Kon let out a low, soft whine. "It's not just Ichigo. The Shinigami don't let normal humans-"

"Shinigami?" Tatsuki repeated incredulously. Death god? No way that was literal. "Is that an organization of some sort?"

Kon shifted again, trying to pull away from her. She didn't let him move. "S-sort of," he said finally. "Look, I could get into real big trouble over this. Please don't ask any more-"

"I'll ask what I want till I get answers!" she seethed. "Trust me; you're not getting into any worse trouble than you're already in right here, right now."

Kon gave her an irritated frown, though his tone remained panicked. "Easy for you to say! You don't know Urahara! If I screw this up, he'll kill me for sure!"

For a split second, Tatsuki was alarmed by that, but then her eyes narrowed as she realized he was probably bluffing. Immediately, she slammed her fist into the wall behind him, right beside his head.

Suddenly breathless, he turned in shock to examine the damage she'd done: a large dent with cracks running a good distance away in a spider web pattern around it.

She smirked at him dangerously. "You say that as if I am incapable of killing you myself. Tell me what happened, or this'll be what your head looks like next." Two could play at bluffing.

To her surprise, despite cringing at her words, Kon remained resolute. "I can't tell you. Hit me if you want, but I'm not-"

Tatsuki abruptly leaned forward, her fist coming up and heading for Kon's face. He yelped, bringing both hands up to guard his head and attempting to duck out of the way. "All right, wait!" Tatsuki smirked, her fist stopping way before it got anywhere close to touching him.

Kon peeked up at her through his fingers, sweating hard. "Okay, okay. I-Ichigo is... ah... L-look, it's a really long story. M-maybe we should discuss this somewhere else?"

Tatsuki scoffed. "And give you an opportunity to get away and never come back? Not happening."

Another whine escaped from him, and then he slumped. "Um, s-so... Where to start? Uh, so, Rukia-neesan was taken back to Soul Society right before... er..." he hesitated, glancing up at her. "Ah, wait, that's no good. You don't know-"

"Kuchiki Rukia, you mean?" Tatsuki asked with some surprise. "What does she have to do with this?"

Kon looked more surprised than she did. "You _do_ know Neesan?" he wondered. "I thought there was a memory wipe... er..." he trailed off uncomfortably.

A scowl appeared on Tatsuki's face. Memory wipe? That would explain a lot. "You memory wiped me?" she hissed.

Kon hurriedly shook his head. "I didn't do it! I told you, the Shinigami don't like their secrets revealed!" He hesitated again, his face turning slightly red. "But, ah... if you remember even with the memory replacements... you don't happen to remember... uh... I mean, you've never met me before, right?" he asked nervously.

Tatsuki's eyes narrowed at this, her tone suddenly dangerous again. "I don't know. Have I?"

"No!" Kon assured her, a little too loudly. "No, of course not! Eh, so, what was I saying before? Um..."

Tatsuki rolled her eyes, but decided to let it slide for now. Right now, it was more important to get her initial questions answered first. "You were telling me what Kuchiki Rukia had to do with the fact that my friends are missing."

Kon nodded quickly. "Right. Um, so... A while back, Rukia-neesan gave Ichigo Shinigami powers, and she got in trouble for it. They took her back to-"

Tatsuki stared at him for a split second, before interrupting with, "What? Shinigami powers? You mean that literally? Ichigo? You can't be serious!"

"You wanted to know!" Kon protested. "I'm just saying what I know!"

Letting out a slow breath between clenched teeth, Tatsuki reluctantly let him continue. "Fine. So Ichigo has Shinigami powers?" She really should have known it'd be something like that, what with Ichigo's whole seeing ghosts thing. He'd always denied it when she asked him, but she'd stumbled into enough of his conversations with thin air that she knew he must actually see them.

Leave it to Ichigo to stumble upon a Death God.

Kon nodded. "So, Soul Society—that's the place you go when you die—they brought Rukia-neesan back to punish her for breaking the law. Ichigo broke into Soul Society to rescue her, and even though Inoue-san and Sado-san and Ishida all got to go with him, the jerk made me stay behind!"

Tatsuki scowled at him again. "You think I'm going to believe that Orihime went to the world of the dead over the break, to help _rescue_ somebody?" She shook her head. "I mean, I could see her doing it, especially if Ichigo was involved, but why would Ichigo agree to bring her along to a place like that? And why didn't he ask for _my_ help?"

Kon looked disgruntled. "I don't know; I didn't plan any of it! _I_ almost spent the whole time duct taped to the back of a toilet! So don't go complaining!"

She couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow at that, somewhat amused. With great effort, she didn't ask about it, instead frowning at him again. "Fine. You say Ishida went along, too? Why is he back, when the others aren't? What happened?" Already, the quiet, black-haired boy had been added to her mental list of people to yell at once she was done here.

"I..." Kon sighed, shrugging helplessly. "I don't really know. Ichigo rescued Neesan, apparently, but there was some big evil plot going on, and Ichigo got kidnapped... or something."

"Ichigo got... kidnapped?" Tatsuki raised an eyebrow. "By who?"

With a scowl, Kon burst out, "I don't know, nobody ever bothers telling me anything!"

"I know how you feel on that one," Tatsuki returned dryly, her resolve to question Ishida growing. "So, what about Orihime?"

Kon shrugged again. "Inoue-sama and Sado-san decided to stay in Soul Society so that they can train. Apparently, they're planning a rescue mission. Ishida said he didn't care about Ichigo and came back here. Frankly, I agree with him. Who needs that orange-head jerk, anyway?"

Tatsuki ignored most of what he'd said; her mind had latched on the phrase 'rescue mission'. "When are they going to go after him?"

"Huh?" Kon frowned at her. "Uh, I don't know. As soon as they can get someone to open a gate for them, I assume. Again, nobody tells me anything! I know nothing!" He waved his hands defensively.

Tatsuki nodded thoughtfully before smirking at him. "All right. Well, I'm going, too."

Kon stared at her, obviously not comprehending what she'd just said. "Huh?"

"When everyone else goes on this rescue mission, I'm going too," she clarified, her gaze daring him to tell her no. "If Orihime can fight, so can I! I'll get Ichigo back, no matter _where_ he's at!"

For a moment, Kon looked like he didn't know what to say to that. Then, to her surprise, he sighed. "You can't. _I'm_ not even powerful enough to do anything to help. You're just a-"

Tatsuki snorted. "Of course you're not. From what I've seen of you, you're a perverted wimp. Need I remind you again that I'm a black belt? Do I need to put more holes in the wall to demonstrate? I'm not exactly a weakling!"

Kon shied away from her glare. "I-it's not that! Listen, Ichigo _with_ Shinigami powers couldn't beat these guys. The Shinigami _captains_ couldn't beat these guys. You and me, we're strong for humans, but that's _it_. We are nothing compared to these guys. You probably wouldn't even be able to stay standing just from those guys being _close_."

Tatsuki's eyes narrowed again. Even without completely understanding exactly what he was saying, she understood that he was afraid of these people. They were serious business. "Why can Orihime fight if I can't?" The question wasn't whining; she simply wanted to know what had happened to her friend. "Why is she special?"

"Why would I know something like that?" Kon snorted derisively. "She and Sado-san gained powers, for some reason, and now they can fight hollows. Not anything that I had anything to do with!"

She wasn't even going to ask what 'hollows' were. "Well, if they got powers, maybe I can, too," she said confidently.

At first, it looked as though Kon would outright deny her again, but then a thoughtful look appeared on his face. "Well," he said slowly. "I... suppose you could always try asking Urahara-san. A-at the very least, he could answer your questions better than I can."

Tatsuki considered this. "All right. Where would I find this Urahara guy?"

"I'll tell you if you let go," Kon offered, glancing down nervously at her hand still clenched in the fabric of his shirt, pinning him to the wall.

Tatsuki blinked, and then slowly released him. When he didn't immediately take off running, she relaxed a bit, smirking at him. "Hey, I'll do you one better. You tell me where to find Urahara, and I'll give you some tips on acting like Ichigo."

For a long moment, Kon just stared at her, and then a large, genuine grin (odd on a face so much like Ichigo's) appeared on his face. "That'd be great. You've got a deal."

* * *

Okay! Things are finally starting to move just a little faster! Hopefully, they'll only continue to pick up speed from here!

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review! Your questions, comments, theories, etc. are much appreciated!

-Daricio


	6. Dancing With The Devil

Greetings!

Now, this chapter didn't take _too_ long to get out, now did it? It's only been... ... about four months. =D? Ah, well; at least this one's long.

Before I begin the story, I have something to say, which has absolutely nothing to do with this story but that I've been challenged to include in one of my updates. I do NOT intend this in any way, shape, or form as a means to offend anyone, or to spark any debates. I just want to briefly state my beliefs.

I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). Many call us Mormons. I believe in the reality of the Atonement of our Savior, and in the pure love that Christ and our Heavenly Father have for every soul on earth. I believe in the power of prayer, and in the idea of personal revelation. I know this church to be true through my own experiences, and not just because good people have told me it is so. I believe that all struggles and hardships in our lives serve a purpose, like a refiner's fire. And I believe that all people should at least hear of the great plan of happiness that God has for us all, which is part of the reason why I'm putting this here in the first place.

My brother and my best friend are currently out on full-time 2-year missions professing the gospel, so I thought I should do my part. If you want to know more, contact an awesome missionary near you.

Okay, I'm done with that for now.

Anyway, back to the Day Before Tomorrow, since that's what you all came here to read.

First off, thank you all so much for reading this story, and for leaving your helpful comments. I really enjoy writing this story, and I'm glad that so many people enjoy reading it. I'd also like to thank Obi-Quiet, who has once again beta'd for me, and who also did a very interesting role play with me so I could figure out what I was doing with one of the scenes. If it weren't for her, I would have a lot of really stupid questions in this chapter.

Just in case you've forgotten due to the long wait... Last time, Ichigo had several very frustrating conversations, and ultimately decided that while he hates his hollow's plan to cover his Shinigami reiatsu with Hollow reiatsu in order to fool Aizen, it may be the only thing he can feasibly try without getting himself killed. Oh, and Kon got massively chewed out by Tatsuki, but nobody cares about him. Yet.

* * *

Growling low in his throat, Ichigo slowly paced the length of the small room he'd been given, his teeth clenched in frustration as he glared at the floor in front of him. He really didn't want to do this. He really, _really_ didn't want to do this.

"_Alright,_"he mentally bit out, concentrating on aiming the thought harshly in his hollow's direction. "_What exactly are you going to try for this 'takeover attempt' thing?_"

For a long, frustrating moment, no response came. Then, finally, Ichigo's white double appeared in the back of his mind, looking smug. "_Ah, so you're actually going to try it, huh?_"

"_I do _not _need your sarcasm,_" Ichigo shot back angrily, continuing to pace with a fervor and trying to ignore the hollow as much as he could while still listening to him. "_Just tell me what you're planning._"

The hollow laughed darkly at him, the sound echoing with his usual underwater-like waver. "_It's not that hard to figure out, at least not if you actually have any brains at all. Whenever we shove on each other, it whips up enough reiatsu to fool anyone. Piece of cake._"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "I get that," he said with great exasperation. "I just-"

His hollow suddenly gave him the mental equivalent of a smack upside the back of his head, causing him to freeze in his tracks. "_Not out loud, you moron,_" the white teen hissed. "_I don't care if you are alone. Always assume you're being watched._"

Ichigo grit his teeth again, his hands clenching into fists. "_Yeah, whatever,_" he thought back at him, continuing his pacing once he decided that the hollow wasn't about to do anything more to him. Carefully, he spoke only in his mind, focusing on keeping his outer self silent.

"_I get how that part works,_" he repeated irritably. "_I just want to make sure you're not going to try taking over any time I'm not paying attention._"

"_You're kidding, right?_"The hollow gave him a wide smirk. "_Any time you're not paying attention is the perfect time for me to try to take over._ _They're going to notice if you're somehow prepared for each and every attack._"

If looks could kill, then the far wall would have long ago crumbled away into nothingness. Ichigo spun impatiently on his heel as he reached it, and then stalked off the other direction. "No way," he growled, already forgetting not to speak out loud. "I'm _not_ just going to let you-"

The hollow scoffed, interrupting him sharply. "_I think you're forgetting something _very_ important here, Ichigo._"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What_?_"

A strange jerking sensation caught Ichigo off guard, and for an instant, his vision doubled. His hollow rushed forward, pushing past Ichigo and seizing his fumbling control over his body. Without his consent, his right arm raised up, reaching for his zanpakutou.

Horrified, Ichigo pulled his hollow back and shoved, forcing him back down and away from him. A loud, satisfying _crack_ echoed through his mind and his hollow screamed in pain.

"No!" Ichigo yelled at him angrily, pushing even harder. Several more cracks rang out. "How _dare _you? You're _not_ getting away with-!"

"_Ichigo_." The calm voice of his zanpakutou cut through his anger, and he paused, closing his eyes questioningly.

In his mind's eye, he could see Zangetsu standing lightly on the edge of a splintered windowsill in the sideways world. Near him, in a broken pile of rubble that spider-webbed out away from him, lay his hollow.

The white teen sat up slowly, letting out a low hiss as he wiped his mouth with the back of one hand, shaking his head. A thin trickle of blood made its way down the side of his face as he looked up, smirking faintly.

"_What you're forgetting,_" the hollow informed him carefully, "_is just how much stronger you are than me, you moron. You do realize that you just sent me through _three_ buildings, right?_"

Ichigo scowled. "_Like you haven't ever sent _me_ through buildings,_" he huffed defensively at the hollow's accusing tone.

"_Che,_" his hollow scoffed, rubbing his arm as he rolled his shoulder back. "_I haven't, actually; though you make it very tempting._"

Then the hollow laughed suddenly, losing what little amount of seriousness he'd had in his expression and giving the orange-haired Shinigami an eerie grin. "_But that isn't the point, Ichigo! Think about it. You're behaving like a child, afraid of a spider!_" Ichigo bristled at the insult, but the hollow went on before he could say anything. "_Yes, the spider can bite you, and yeah, it might hurt a bit. But just keep in mind: you're strong enough to squash me if you so choose. Lay off._"

Stiffly, Ichigo growled. "Shut up," he muttered. "I'm _not_ afraid of you."

The hollow laughed as he got slowly to his feet. "_Coulda fooled me,_" he said under his breath, brushing rubble lightly off of his clothing. "_Look, Ichigo. I get that you're not exactly thrilled about having to work with me. Regardless, if you want this plan to work, you'll have to quit trying to kill me every time I move._"

"_Yeah? Well, then stop moving,_" Ichigo shot distractedly. The hollow merely rolled his eyes at him.

For a long moment, Ichigo simply stood in the center of the room, conflicting emotions crossing his face. 'Not exactly thrilled' didn't quite cover the extent to which he loathed the idea of being anywhere near his hollow, much less being forced to listen to his constant criticism and insults all the time. But he _did_ need this plan to work, or he would get himself killed.

Ichigo let out a long, slow sigh, bringing his hand up to his face for a moment before running it through his hair, trying to force the anger and frustration out of his system. He needed to calm down and act rationally.

And act, just in general. If anyone was watching his room, as he suspected, they _had_ to be wondering what had just happened to him.

Out loud, he swore softly, a deep scowl coming easily to his face. "It's getting worse," he seethed darkly to no one in particular. He hoped that somebody really was watching, or else he'd be standing there feeling ridiculous for no reason. "I'm not going to be able to control him much longer. At this rate..."

With a low growl, he spun towards the door and stormed out into the stark white hallway. "_Not a word,_" he shot irritably at his hollow. He did not need commentary on his acting skills on top of everything else.

His hollow snickered. "_Not bad,_" he said, ignoring Ichigo's warning tone and commenting on his acting anyway. "_I take it you're off in search of an audience?_"

Ichigo's fists clenched for a moment, but he forced the anger away. Taking a deep breath, he chose a direction down the long hallway at random and started moodily down its length. "_No,_" he returned harshly. "_I'm just walking. I do that when I'm mad._"

Ichigo knew for a fact that he was terrible at hiding his feelings, or pretending that he was feeling something that he wasn't. He had reminders enough of that every year as the anniversary of his mother's death rolled around, when he watched his friends and family wince at the forced smiles he put on.

Emotions like fear and anger were easier for him to fake, especially since he really was feeling both of them to some degree at the moment, but he'd still have to try hard to make it convincing to anyone watching. The only way he could think of to do that was to imitate the way he'd acted the last time he'd actually felt this way. He remembered what his reactions had been when his hollow had nearly consumed him in his previous time line: he'd become moody, withdrawn, and had taken to walking all over town as he'd considered his options. That made for an easy template of behavior to follow in this case.

Walking around like this _was_ also a good way to attract further attention to the "problems" he was having, though. As long as he could actually find anybody in this giant labyrinth of a place.

"_When are you going to make your next takeover attempt?_" he asked his hollow grudgingly, studying the floor in front of him as he walked.

He got a snicker in response. "_When you least expect it, of course. Don't worry; I'll say something before I do anything. I'm crazy, not suicidal._"

Ichigo rolled his eyes and continued to stalk down the hallway, glancing briefly into a doorway on his left as he passed. His hollow's odd behavior, vacillating between almost subservient to flat out insulting him, had really started bugging him. He hated not knowing what to expect from—

Cutting himself off mid-thought, Ichigo froze suddenly. "What the...?" Backing up slowly, he looked back into the room he'd passed, eyes narrowing in suspicion as he glanced around. "This is..."

It was the room he'd left not a minute before. Or at least, if it was a different one, it looked absolutely identical, right down to the strange ornament that sat on a small side table by the couch.

Ichigo stared. "That's impossible! I was walking in a straight line! How...?"

Moving hallways. A scowl fell over Ichigo's face again as he suddenly understood. Ishida and Renji had said something about this after their initial break-in to Hueco Mundo, but he hadn't realized the extent to which they could be manipulated. He hadn't even noticed anything out of place as he'd walked.

But then again, he hadn't exactly been paying a lot of attention to his surroundings. Setting his jaw firmly, he turned and started off down the hallway again, this time eyeing the walls distrustfully.

Nothing seemed to shift at all, despite his scrutiny. The hallway stretched on for as far as he could see with few doorways spread along its length at far distances from each other. As soon as he reached the nearest entryway, he ducked his head inside, his scowl deepening as he realized that it was once again the room he'd started in.

His eyes narrowed. "No way. This has gotta just be that Ichimaru guy messing with me. No way is this actually the same room."

With that, he reached over his shoulder and unsheathed Zangetsu. In one fluid motion, he turned to the door and sliced a long, shallow, horizontal line halfway across it. Then, just for good measure, he added several more lines beside it to finish roughly writing out the symbols for his given name.

That completed, he sheathed Zangetsu again, feeling smug. "They can't duplicate that quickly enough to fool me this time," he noted aloud, turning around and once more setting out down the hallway.

Once again, nothing seemed to move, but stretching out his senses, Ichigo could feel vague amounts of reiatsu swirling behind the walls. There was no telling what that meant; the very air in Hueco Mundo held so much reiatsu that pinpointing exact sources had always been near-impossible for him, especially considering how much he sucked at sensing reiatsu in the first place. This could mean there was something there moving things around, but it could also just be someone walking by in a room on the other side of the wall. Or it could be absolutely nothing.

As Ichigo approached the next doorway, his steps faltered to a stop as he glared at the door. Engraved in the wood, cutting through the white paint, was the name "Ichigo." The marks _he'd_ placed there.

Slowly, he let out an irritated sigh. "Alright. Fine, I get it," he grumbled, directing his comments to the ceiling. "The hallways really do move and right now I'm stuck here. Ha, ha, very funny, whoever's doing this. Now, let me out."

Nothing happened; not that he'd actually expected anything to. Regardless, the dead silence in the hall didn't help his mood in the slightest.

Turning sullenly back down the hallway, Ichigo started walking again. Honestly, even if he was just going in circles, it didn't matter anyway; he wasn't actually trying to get anywhere in particular.

His hollow suddenly gave him the mental equivalent of a tap on the shoulder and he flinched involuntarily. "_What?_" he snapped.

"_Out of curiosity,_" the hollow began, appearing in his mental vision with an inquisitive smirk on his face, "_you said something about me almost gaining control in your past. About how long did that take?_"

Ichigo could see what the hollow was getting at—his previous timeline would give him a good idea of how long this current "takeover" should take as wall—but the smug tone he used still ticked him off.

After a tense pause, he grudgingly provided the answer. "_I went home about a week after rescuing Rukia, and I finally went to the Vaizard a little over a week after that. But I didn't do much fighting during that first week, and that's always been what makes both of us stronger._"

"_So, especially if you keep picking fights with the Arrancar around here, we should finish this up in about that time: a little over a week,_" his hollow concluded with a grin.

Ichigo scowled again. "_Something like that._"

"_We'll need to move fairly quickly, then._" The hollow looked altogether much too thrilled about that idea for Ichigo's liking. "_Not only do we have to make the attempts themselves realistic, but you'll need some time practicing moving around with my reiatsu cloaking you._"

Ichigo contemplated that for a moment. He hadn't really thought much about how they were going to accomplish the illusion of his hollow being in control. He had a vague idea of what they'd do, but nothing really solid. Though, maybe...

His hollow laughed eerily. "_I think now's as good a time as any to try something out._"

"_You would,_" Ichigo shot back. Still, he did need to figure out how they were going to make this work. Resentfully, he gave a quick, harsh, "_Fine._"

With that, he slowed to a stop, gritting his teeth and leaning heavily against one of the walls in the long corridor. Slowly, he brought his right hand up to his face where the hollow mask usually formed and started raising his spirit energy.

He wasn't exactly sure what he was doing, but before they could try having the hollow mask his spirit energy with his own, they'd have to start pushing against each other to make it seem as though a fight for control was occurring rather than an abrupt, voluntary takeover (as "voluntary" as a takeover could get, anyway).

The hollow took the cue easily, surging closer to control. Ichigo braced himself, but the hollow seemed to have a different idea than simply shoving on his hastily-created barrier; as soon as he was close enough to do so, he flared their reiatsu high, streaking the blue aura around them with red-tinted black.

Ichigo tensed and tried to fight off his instinctive urge to shove the hollow back. Instead, he also let his reiatsu flare, as though trying to smother the taint that had spread through it with his own Shinigami influence.

As they both continued to push harder and harder, not on each other, but on their reiatsu, his hollow burst into crazed laughter. With great effort, they forced it higher and higher as they competed. Ichigo's fists clenched and his whole body began to tremble from the sudden strain, his ears ringing dully.

Finally, the hollow giddily shouted out, "_Enough! Ease back on your reiatsu so I can mask it with mine!_"

Easing back had never exactly been Ichigo's strong point, particularly in regards to reiatsu, and especially when everything in him was screaming at him to keep pumping in as much as he could. Regardless, he slowly, shakily forced his input level down. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead as red-black began to overtake the blue.

"_More!_" his hollow urged. "_I still can't cover it! More!_"

Shaking his head, Ichigo let out a strangled growl. "No!" he yelled, fighting back a strange panic that was settling over his mind. "I can't! I won't!"

"_Then I'll have to move closer._"

A split second later, Ichigo's eyes flew open wide as he felt hard bone forming beneath his fingertips. Trying to yank his hand away, he met with harsh resistance, as though someone had grabbed hold of both wrists, locking his arms in place. He'd felt that before; his hollow was taking control!

"NO!" Without thinking, Ichigo lashed out wildly, hurling the hollow as far away from himself as possible. The mask on his face shattered, falling to the floor in pieces, and with an abrupt jerk, Ichigo stood on his own in the hallway.

Breathing heavily, sweat now running down his face as he tried to control the shaking that had enveloped his whole body, Ichigo could only stare straight ahead, leaning hard against the wall.

After a long moment, his hollow swore softly in the back of his mind, sounding exhausted. "_Alright, then,_" he muttered sarcastically. "_That was too close, I take it._"

Ichigo's old anger flared back to life again, and he pushed off of the wall, trying to remain steady as he stormed away. "I can't do this," he growled out loud. "Just—just leave me alone!"

"_Che._" Ichigo could have sworn he sensed the hollow roll his eyes, waving him off dismissively.

Ichigo just ignored him, focusing only on his long strides as he nearly ran down the corridor. He only wished that the physical steps could actually get him somewhere away from the hollow in his mind.

* * *

"_Your guard's down again._" Ichigo flinched as his hollow spoke up suddenly, sounding bored as he pointed out the orange-haired Shinigami's moment of weakness. "_Good opportunity for me to try another takeover._"

Ichigo blew out a harsh sigh of annoyance, his hands tightening on Zangetsu's hilt as he turned and swung the blade down, releasing a Getsuga Tenshou angrily at the blue-haired numeros girl who had challenged him to a fight earlier.

He'd only accepted so that he could use the fight to vent his frustrations a little, but that wasn't working. Not only was she already struggling to keep up with him, despite the fact that he hadn't even released bankai yet, but his inner demon simply refused to leave him alone.

Several days had gone by (or at least, he'd gotten tired enough to fall asleep several times; it was hard to tell time passing in this place), and yet he still hated every moment the hollow decided to talk to him. Mostly because every time he did, it was only to bug him about trying another takeover, or testing ways to cloak his reiatsu, or some other thing that involved nearly letting the monster take control again.

"_No,_" he bit out in response to the request, keeping his glare focused on his opponent, who was taking her own sweet time getting to her feet again. "_Later. I'm not done yet._"

His hollow rolled his eyes, his reply sarcastic. "_Yes, and I'm _sure_ that if I was actually trying to defeat you, I'd _definitely_ wait for you to be finished with whatever it was you were doing before I attacked you. And your guard's _still_ down, by the way._"

With a scowl, Ichigo determinedly threw his mental barriers up into place and gave a slight shake of his head. "_There. We don't have to do that _every_ time I'm fighting someone, you know. Besides, she's not very strong, so it's not like it's the kind of battle that would actually trigger a takeover attempt._"

They were lame excuses, and both of them knew it, especially as the memory resurfaced of his hollow assaulting him during a sad excuse for a fight against a regular hollow, while Rukia looked on disapprovingly. And besides that, the very _first_ attempts the two of them had done here in Las Noches had been done without any fight going on at all.

Ichigo shook off the thoughts and focused back on his current surroundings. The Arrancar girl had finally stood up again, brushing down her plain, white outfit with a scowl on her face. Despite her stubbornness in continuing to fight him, he could see hints of fear in her brown eyes whenever she glanced at him and he could tell that she already regretted challenging him.

He wasn't all that surprised by her lack of skill. Though the blue-haired girl had a mostly human form—her mask fragment only covering most of her forehead and a small part of the sides of her face—and so had greater strength than many of the Arrancar around here, Ichigo could hold his own against Espada as high as Grimmjow. He really couldn't expect anyone below that level to even compare.

That didn't stop him from being a bit disappointed as she came at him again, her attacks ridiculously easy to parry and dodge around. The fear in her eyes only grew as he continued to avoid everything she threw at him.

"_You have heard the saying 'You can do it if you think you can,' haven't you?_"

Ichigo blew out a harsh sigh of annoyance, but otherwise refused to react outwardly to his hollow's words. "_Of course I've heard it. So, what?_"

His hollow gave a vague mental shrug. "_It really is true, you know,_" he said with a grin. "_Literally, your spiritual potential actually rises when you're sure that you can win. Or even when you're just flat-out resolved to win._"

Ichigo rolled his eyes a little. "_Tell me something I don't know,_" he said dryly. He'd noticed that much on his own ages ago.

The girl he fought finally managed to add in a sloppy sonido, bringing her directly in front of Ichigo with little room for him to swing his sword to defend. Instead, he simply stepped aside, letting her ill-executed technique carry her straight into the wall behind him.

With another sigh, Ichigo reluctantly returned his attention to his hollow, who hovered close by as though he still had something to say. "_Who cares? What's that got to do with anything?_"

"_It goes both ways,_" the hollow pointed out lazily. "_The more you tell yourself that you _can't_ do something, the harder it is to accomplish. The more convinced you are that everything you're doing will fail, the more likely it is to fail._"

Ichigo scowled, distractedly bringing Zangetsu up to block an overhead swing coming down at his head. "_You think I'm not trying hard enough to work with you._" It wasn't a question. He'd already felt the hollow grow increasingly frustrated with him over the last few days as they'd continually failed to make progress in their efforts, even when Ichigo actually allowed him to even try. They just couldn't seem to find a balance that would cover Ichigo's reiatsu while still allowing him to remain in control.

The hollow just smirked at him. "_Hey, you said it, not me._" Before Ichigo could let out his angry retort at this, he continued as though the orange-headed Shinigami's opinion didn't matter to him. "_Oi, did Zangetsu-san ever tell you that it rains in your mental world sometimes?_"

His teeth clenching together, Ichigo sent a quick Getsuga to knock the Arrancar girl away from him so she'd quit attacking for a few moments. "_He might have mentioned it before,_" he admitted warily, not sure why his other self had changed the subject so abruptly. "_Why?_"

"_Just so you know, the worse you feel, the worse this stupid rain gets. Knock it off, you imbecile__._"

Ichigo seethed as much at the insult as he did at the unexpected reprimand. "_Shut up and leave me alone,_" he snapped, mentally shoving the hollow away from him. Stubbornly, he focused back on his battle with the Arrancar, lunging at her and using Zangetsu's hilt to knock her zanpakutou out of her hands, sending it sliding across the floor.

Eyes wide, she raised both hands in surrender, her back against the wall as Ichigo pointed his sword at her. "Y-yield!" she cried, staring at him in slight wonder. "I acknowledge your strength, Kurosaki-dono. I should not have challenged you!"

Unexpectedly, his hollow spoke up again, sounding incredibly put-off. "_Fine, then. Ignore me. See if I try passing along Zangetsu-san's messages to you again._" With that, the hollow withdrew back into the depths of his mind.

A bit shocked, Ichigo lowered Zangetsu, looking down at the blade with some concern.

The Arrancar girl, apparently realizing that he wasn't paying attention to her, took the opportunity to run off, scooping up her sword as she skittered out of the room. Ichigo barely noticed her leave, contemplating the hollow's words.

"From old man Zangetsu...?" he murmured to himself, narrowing his eyes in thought. The hollow was lying to him, of course. If the old man wanted to talk to him, he'd do it himself.

Shaking his head, Ichigo sheathed Zangetsu and swung the blade back onto his back. He appeared to have lost his opponent, which was actually a slight relief, considering his hollow's annoying prodding. Now, though, he was back to being bored and irritable. Such was his life.

Moodily, he turned and stalked away.

* * *

Rukia hurried down the length of the 13th division building, trying to keep herself from breaking into a run. One of the other officers had informed her that her captain was in his office, so that was her destination. "Ukitake-taichou?" she called out worriedly as she came near the door.

She heard a faint acknowledgement from the other side, so, hardly even slowing down, she threw the door open and rushed in. "Ukitake-taichou, I need to—Oh!"

Heat rushed to her face and she came to a dead stop at the sight of the room's inhabitants: Kuchiki Byakuya sat calmly on a cushion across from Ukitake, and he didn't bother looking up as she entered.

"N-Niisama." Suddenly, all of Rukia's words were gone, and she stammered, starting to back slowly out of the room. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt!"

Ukitake waved his hands as though trying to dispel her discomfort from the air, a tired smile on his face. "Ah, Kuchiki-san! Don't leave. I thought I would be seeing you soon."

Byakuya stood, nodding respectfully to Ukitake. "We were about finished, I believe?"

The white-haired man paused for a moment in thought, and then nodded back. "Ah," he agreed. "Just keep in mind what I was telling you, Kuchiki-taichou." He gave Rukia a strangely meaningful glance, and she shifted uncomfortably, not sure if she wanted to know what they'd been talking about.

With a final nod, Byakuya turned and brushed past Rukia out of the room. As he did so, he stopped briefly, looking at her as though he wanted to say something. Eventually, he merely continued on, his bright scarf fluttering lightly behind him as he disappeared from sight.

Rukia continued to watch after him, a frown creasing her face. While up on Soukyoku hill, right after Aizen and the other traitors had left with Ichigo, she had gone to her brother's side as fourth squad units worked to heal the wounds Aizen had inflicted upon him. There, he had finally told her the details about her older sister, Hisana, and the promise that he had made to her before she'd died. He also told her about the promise he'd made on his parents' grave to never again break the rules, and the dilemma that had arisen when Rukia's execution was set.

Since then, Rukia still wasn't sure how her brother felt about her. Did she measure up to his expectations? To her sister's expectations? Or was she just a disappointment; the cause of so many of his problems?

There really wasn't a good way to determine the answers, and so she was left wondering. He seemed to remain civil towards her—as he'd always been when dealing with her—but there were little things he did as well; things that pointed both directions. That look he gave her might mean that he approved of her, or that he'd wanted to apologize to her. The fact that he'd just walked away might mean he didn't find her worthy of his presence.

She knew that despite everything that had happened, he still positively loathed Ichigo, though he'd never said exactly why. Did he still wish that her friends hadn't broken in to save her from execution? Or did he maintain his utter hatred for the orange-headed teen for another reason?

Instead of outright saying anything to her, Byakuya simply remained distant. It was almost as though he was afraid to get to close to her for fear that she _would_ disappoint him. And honestly, she felt the same way.

"Kuchiki-san, what was it you wanted to discuss with me?" Ukitake's kind voice broke through her thoughts and she jumped slightly, her face going involuntarily pink again as she whirled around to face him.

Quickly, Rukia bowed low, trying to hide her embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Ukitake-taichou! It's just that, well..."

Ukitake laughed lightly, waving her over. "Come, sit down."

Falling silent, Rukia made her way to the cushion that her brother had recently vacated and knelt down on it, clearing her throat as she got her prepared words back in order. Ukitake waited patiently for her, and soon her nerves settled again.

"Ukitake-taichou, a short while ago, I heard someone say that the sou-taichou has decided not to send a rescue team into Hueco Mundo to find Ichigo." She looked up at him with questioning, worried eyes. "Is this true?"

The smile disappeared from the white-haired captain's face, and slowly, he let out a sigh. "Unfortunately, it is," he confirmed solemnly. "There was a captain's meeting held yesterday afternoon, and-"

Rukia's lips tightened, and suddenly all thought of formality left her. "Why? After what he did for me—for all of us—we can't just abandon him!"

Ukitake shook his head sadly. "I know, Kuchiki-san. But we have no idea how long Aizen has been creating his army, or how strong that army is. We already know he has control over the Menos Grande in Hueco Mundo, and he may have forces even more powerful than that at his disposal. We know nothing about our enemy, and he knows everything about us."

Rukia started to object, but her captain interrupted her firmly. "The defect of three captains and the grave injuries of several more captains and vice captains from the recent events has left Soul Society crippled. We must recover from these blows before we can deal any of our own. And even if we didn't, with Aizen's forces as powerful as we think they are, if we were to try sending any less than our full fighting force against him... it would simply be a suicide mission."

"A suicide mission..." Rukia tried hard to contain her fury. "Like the one Ichigo and his human friends went on when they broke into Seireitei and took on the entire Gotei 13 in an attempt to rescue me?"

Closing his eyes, Ukitake sighed again, a small smile appearing on his lips briefly at her words. "There are, unfortunately, many differences between those two events. We were not adequately prepared for an intrusion of the sort that your friend executed. There were also many inside Seireitei who sympathized with his mission, myself included. We cannot expect either of those circumstances within Hueco Mundo."

Rukia shook her head hard. "Ichigo didn't expect those things, either, but he went anyway! Ukitake-taichou, how can I not do for him what he did for me?"

Gently, Ukitake reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, looking her in the eyes. "I understand how you feel, Kuchiki. But you must see this from a tactical point of view. If we want any hope of winning this war, the Gotei 13 cannot afford to take the losses that such a mission would deal us."

Rukia remained silent, her gaze fixed on her knees as she frowned. Thoughts raced through her head. Her captain was right, as far as the Gotei 13's official position was concerned, but she still didn't think that meant that _nobody_ should attempt the rescue. Ichigo had earned the respect of many people here, and she was sure that if she asked around, she'd be able to form a team herself. They'd be deliberately disobeying all of their orders, risking severe punishment, but for a friend, especially one like Ichigo...

Ukitake watched her for a moment before leaning back again, a strange smile on his face. "None of this, of course, impacts Kurosaki-san's two human friends. We have offered Sado-san and Inoue-san training and they have taken us up on that offer, but the Gotei 13 has no real authority over them whatsoever. Of course, that doesn't mean that the two of them really should try to break into Hueco Mundo on their own..."

The black-haired Shinigami's eyes widened slightly. Somehow, her captain had already guessed what she was planning, and now suggested that Chad and Inoue would definitely come with her when she left. Slowly, she forced herself to relax. He'd seen right through her, but she was pretty sure he supported her plans as well.

With a sigh, Rukia gave Ukitake a short bow from her sitting position and started to get up. "Thank you for answering my questions, Ukitake-taichou. I understand now. I shall take my leave and return to my training."

"Kuchiki-san, I worry about you."

Freezing halfway to her feet, Rukia looked up at her captain sharply, wondering at his sudden words. "What?"

Ukitake gave a firm nod. "You're still recovering from that horrible ordeal. Losing your power for so long, then being kept inside that draining Sekiseki prison on top of that, not to mention that kidou that was used to pull things out of your soul. You've had a traumatizing experience, and I fear that you are pushing yourself too hard, too soon."

Rukia's expression hardened as she sank back down onto the cushion. "Ukitake-taichou, I am fine. My reiatsu is over half-restored now. If I don't train, I won't be-"

Her captain held up a hand to stop her and she reluctantly fell silent. He looked at her very seriously. "For your own health, Kuchiki, I simply cannot allow you to return to active duty so quickly after such circumstances. I am putting you on extended leave, and I expect you to use that time away from your usual duties."

Rukia felt her heart sink, an emotion akin to betrayal threatening to overwhelm her. Was he saying that he thought she should stay out of the rescue mission? He didn't think she was strong enough?

"Ukitake-taichou..." She trailed off uncertainly, trying to pull together her wounded pride.

And then she saw the amused light in his eyes, the smile that threatened to break through his serious expression. Rukia's frown deepened as she observed him, trying to decipher the meaning of that.

Sighing, he leaned back on his cushion, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Yes... in fact, I believe that to enforce this leave, since I know how stubbornly you will push yourself if I do not, I am going to assign you a group of escorts. I can't spare a large group at the moment, of course, but enough to keep you safe, _wherever_ it is that you decide to go."

For a moment, Rukia simply stared at her captain. Then slowly, comprehension dawned on her face, her eyes widening again. Wherever she decided to go? Meaning that she would be free to go absolutely anywhere?

Ukitake _did_ want her to go rescue Ichigo! If he assigned Shinigami to follow her and she was allowed to go _anywhere_ she wanted, then even if they all invaded Hueco Mundo, no orders would be disobeyed!

Slowly, Rukia bowed her head again, this time in sincere gratitude. "Thank you, Ukitake-taichou."

He waved her off with a smile. "My pleasure, Kuchiki-san. I dislike seeing those under my command suffer. Goodness knows you've had quite enough of that to last you a while." The white-haired captain got to his feet then, and Rukia scrambled to follow. "Let me know if there are any in particular from our squad whom you would like amongst your escort. I can request some from other divisions as well, but their captains will have to approve."

Rukia nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, sir."

Ukitake gestured lightly to the door. "Then you should get going. You probably won't be able to leave for at least a few days—you might even have to wait till the end of the week while we finish getting everything together—but you should spend that time preparing as much as possible for your trip."

Quickly, Rukia hurried from the room to go find Ichigo's friends. "Yes, okay! Thank you!"

She paused at the door as Ukitake spoke up again, his voice quiet but steady. "I did not have the chance to personally meet Kurosaki Ichigo, other than the brief encounter on that bridge... but through his actions and those of his friends on his behalf, he has gained not only my respect, but that of many others in Seireitei as well. I wish you success, Kuchiki."

Rukia could only nod, suddenly solemn. "Thank you," she whispered lightly. Then, she turned and ran down the corridor.

* * *

At the sudden sound of the door opening, Ichigo involuntarily started a little, but otherwise didn't move from where he'd been lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling with his arms tucked back behind his head.

He didn't even bother looking up at his visitor or acknowledging his presence in any way. He had, unfortunately, begun to grow used to the routine here, much as he disliked that routine, and he already knew that Ulquiorra had stopped by to check on him again.

"I brought you food," the Arrancar informed him coldly. "I suggest you eat."

Ichigo rolled his eyes a little and gave a vague grunt of acknowledgement.

The first time Ulquiorra had come to his room with food, Ichigo had refused to eat it, not trusting anyone here not to have poisoned it or something. The black-haired Arrancar hadn't taken too well to his not eating for some reason, and a rather uproarious argument had broken out between the two of them—uproarious on Ichigo's part, anyway; Ulquiorra had, of course, remained as stoic as usual through the whole thing.

Eventually, it had come to physical blows, which almost ended (frustratingly enough) with Ulquiorra silently holding him down and force-feeding him from a bowl of rice before the orange-haired teen had finally relented, sullenly eating the food by himself. If he was going to go down, he'd at least go down with his dignity intact.

As he'd eaten, the Arrancar had lectured him on the stupidity of poisoning a potential recruit, but Ichigo had just tuned him out.

Now, Ichigo sat up unhurriedly, scowling over at Ulquiorra as an Arrancar he didn't recognize wheeled a cart into the room. To his annoyance, the food on it was—once again—one of his favorite meals, reminding him again of Aizen's rather creepy comment that he'd been watching the teen since his birth.

The cart came to a stop in front of him, and he moodily picked up the nice set of chopsticks that had been set next to the plate, beginning to poke at the spicy chicken experimentally. He still wasn't entirely convinced that they hadn't messed with the food somehow, but nothing had happened to him because of it yet.

"You have been here for a week now." Ulquiorra's unexpected commentary caught Ichigo off guard, and he raised an eyebrow at his guard.

"Yeah, so what?" he asked, stuffing food into his mouth distractedly.

Ulquiorra studied him impassively. "I had hoped to see better results from you, Kurosaki Ichigo. I find myself disappointed."

Irritation flared up again as Ichigo remembered the Arrancar saying almost exactly the same thing right after he'd nearly killed him at their second encounter. "What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped defensively with his mouth still full, trying to keep his hand steady as he slammed the chopsticks back down onto the cart.

"Merely what I said," Ulquiorra responded, apparently ignoring Ichigo's movement. "Aizen-sama brought you here for a reason. He believes that you have a great growth potential, and I have been consequently observing your progress. However, you have not yet met any of my expectations despite your time here."

Ichigo glared at him. "I haven't exactly been spending my time training," he pointed out as evenly as he could. "I've been a _little_ distracted."

"By those strange reiatsu fluctuations, you mean?" Ulquiorra seemed bored by his response. "Your inner hollow is taking control, and you are quickly losing your ability to stop the transformation. I'd hoped that you would have learned to control this by now. This is why you disappoint me."

"Shut up," Ichigo muttered hotly, his gaze going swiftly down to his plate of food so that he wouldn't have to look Ulquiorra in the eye. Inwardly, he forced himself to suppress a wave of triumph that flashed through him as he realized that the illusion he and his hollow were creating had actually been working. His observers assumed that he was losing an inner battle.

At least _something_ had gone right from all of this.

Of course, Ulquiorra didn't let his triumphant feelings last long. The green-eyed Arrancar gave a tiny shake of his head. "Unless you increase your abilities significantly in the next few days, you will not last," he informed him without even a hint of emotion. "I find myself forced merely to hope that you will show more promise as a complete, mindless hollow."

"I _won't_ become a hollow," Ichigo shot at him, ignoring the grumbling he could hear in the back of his mind from his hollow at the 'mindless' comment. "I am human; a Shinigami. And I am _not_ going to change!"

Ulquiorra blinked slowly, as infuriatingly calm as ever as he contemplated Ichigo's comment. "Then, you will forever remain weak," he concluded, sounding honestly disappointed.

With a growl, Ichigo rammed both hands against the side of the cart, knocking it over as he jumped to his feet. Not bothering to stop to give the Arrancar a retort, he stormed from the room, starting off down the endless hallway for what seemed like the millionth time since he'd arrived here.

He _hated_ Ulquiorra's stupid comments! Every one of them! Somehow, each and every time the Arrancar spoke, he managed to say _something_ to tick him off. Honestly, he was really getting sick of it!

The only reason he hadn't simply beaten the Arrancar's head in over it was his reluctant acknowledgement that if he tried something like that, he'd likely end up very dead (again), and he didn't have Inoue here this time around to fix that.

Gritting his teeth, Ichigo deliberately turned his thoughts away from that to focus instead on listing all the ways he'd like to see the pale, green-eyed Arrancar die. None of which included the way he actually _had_ died in his previous timeline. He was _not_ going to let someone else kill him again, especially not his hollow.

"Hey, you!"

Ichigo's steps faltered to a halt at the sound of the voice ahead of him, and his face set into an even deeper scowl than before. That call—or a similar one—was one he'd heard a lot the past week, each from different Arrancar who inevitably wanted to test their strength against his in battle. He looked up, shooting a glare at whoever had yelled at him.

Surprisingly, he faintly recognized the two girls who stood before him—a short-haired blonde with green eyes and a black-haired girl with what had to be a freezing cold outfit, especially here in Hueco Mundo where it was perpetually night. The latter was obviously the one who had spoken, her hands on her hips as she gazed steadily back at him, meeting his glare with a look of calm self-assurance.

He couldn't remember either of their names, but he was pretty sure these two were the ones he'd seen picking on Inoue while he'd been busy fighting Ulquiorra. His glare intensified. "What do you want?"

"What do _we_ want?" the loud one asked in slight disbelief. As she shook her head, her black pigtails swished back and forth across her bare shoulders. "That's my line, twerp! You're the one who walked up to us!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "And you're the one who yelled at me. I'm just walking."

"Well, we're just guarding this door," she shot back at him. "So unless you got a good reason to go in here, I suggest you back off!"

Ichigo actually hadn't noticed the door before, but now that she pointed it out, he realized that he had come to the end of a hallway, where the only way to go besides the direction he'd come from lay between the two girls. They both gave him challenging looks.

Slowly, Ichigo let his frown slip away, looking at the door with mild curiosity. "What's in there that needs guarding?" he wondered aloud. "I haven't run into any other guards in the time I've been here."

"Why should we tell you?" the pigtail girl demanded of him irritatingly.

Ichigo's glare immediately returned. "Maybe because if you don't, I'll just shove past you and go see for myself."

"You wouldn't dare!" Pigtail girl gave him a look that was obviously supposed to be intimidating.

"Loly..." The blonde girl finally spoke up for the first time, shooting a glance at the other girl. "You do realize you're talking to the guy who's been beating up every non-Espada who's challenged him so far, right?"

Pigtail girl immediately whirled on her friend. "I don't care if he's _one_ of the Espada! He's not getting through unless Aizen-sama orders it so!"

"Like you could stop me," Ichigo returned sarcastically, scoffing lightly. With one last smirk at their horrified faces, he brushed right by them and pushed the door open.

"Hey! You-!" Both girls tried to lunge for him, but Ichigo merely flash stepped forward, easily moving beyond their reach into the room ahead.

The room, Ichigo was surprised to find, was one he'd been in before: Aizen's main 'throne room,' where he and Ulquiorra had first started their final battle. He currently stood below the area they'd fought in, and the tall, white seat that served as Aizen's throne loomed high above him on the opposite side of the room.

In the center of the room, to Ichigo's great annoyance, Aizen himself stood with his back to him, looking down at what appeared to be a thin, blue-ish pillar that rose from the floor to about waist-height. With a light smile, the man turned halfway around at Ichigo's entrance, appearing quite amused.

"Kurosaki Ichigo," Aizen greeted him. "I've been expecting you."

Ichigo merely scowled at him.

"We're sorry, Aizen-sama!" The two girls piled into the room, twin expressions of pure fear on their faces. "We'll get him out of here immediately!"

Aizen waved them off kindly. "That is alright, Loly, Menoly. I need to speak with Kurosaki-san anyway."

"I have nothing to say to you," Ichigo informed him, rolling his eyes. "I shoulda known the only guarded door in this place would lead to you." With that, he turned around, determined to head right back out the way he'd come.

The black-haired girl laughed at him unexpectedly, suddenly trying to look self-important. "You really think Aizen-sama has a need for personal bodyguards?" she asked incredulously. "We guard this room even when Aizen-sama isn't here!"

Ichigo just gave her a deadpan look. "Great job," he said sarcastically, gesturing briefly to himself standing inside said guarded room.

She fumed at him silently, having no good comeback to that. The blonde girl bit her lip, as though trying not to laugh at her companion, seeming to miss the fact that she had just been insulted as well.

"Loly is correct that this room is under guard for other reasons," Aizen said, still as coolly amused as before.

Ichigo glanced back at him in time to see the man place something small inside the pillar, which had opened up in a strange spiral shape. He caught a faint glimpse of the item, and then the spiral sealed shut again, the pillar beginning to sink into the floor. The glimpse was more than enough to recognize the thing. "I didn't know you kept the Hougyoku in here," he blurted without thinking.

Aizen smiled at him. "You had no reason to," he demurred. Ichigo scowled at him again. He was beginning to wonder if maybe he should have just stayed in his room and listened to Ulquiorra's insults. If it wasn't one thing around here, it was another.

The pillar finished its movement, becoming flush with the floor so that if Ichigo hadn't already known it was there, he never would have guessed that it was different from any other spot. As his mind turned back to the thing it held within it, a question resurfaced that had been bugging him since he'd first arrived in Hueco Mundo.

"Why do you need the Hougyoku, anyway?" he asked suspiciously, still watching the spot on the floor where it had vanished. "I thought you were going to use it to make Arrancar, but the Arrancar I've seen have all been around here way longer than you've had your hands on it. What gives?"

Aizen shook his head with a soft sigh. "Now, where did you get the notion that I needed it in order to create Arrancar? I do hope that isn't what our friend Urahara thinks my plans were, or I will have to be most disappointed in him."

Ichigo wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he just remained silent, glaring at Aizen as he awaited an actual answer to his question.

Apparently, he wouldn't get one. Aizen turned instead to address the two Arrancar. "Loly, Menoly, could you please leave the two of us alone? As I mentioned before, I have things of importance to discuss with Kurosaki-san."

They both looked a bit surprised by his request, and Loly protested. "But, sir! This guy is-!"

"My guest," Aizen finished for her, his smile very suddenly dangerous despite hardly changing at all. "Please."

The Arrancar continued to stare at him with a shocked expression for a long moment before abruptly whirling around and practically fleeing the room, her quiet companion following on her heels. The door boomed shut, and Ichigo scowled again as he realized that whatever Aizen had to say, he would have to listen to it whether he liked it or not.

Reluctantly, he turned to fully face his captor, folding his arms in annoyance. "What?"

"I should think you'd have guessed by now what I need to ask you," Aizen returned easily. "I have given you ample time to consider my previous offer. Will you join me, Kurosaki Ichigo?"

Ichigo immediately fell silent, swallowing hard as his gaze shifted angrily to a distant corner of the room. His automatic reaction to that was still exactly the same as it was when Aizen had first offered: a loud, clear 'No.' But should he still give that answer?

He didn't want Aizen to guess at any of his plans with his inner hollow, so maybe maintaining the same answer as before would be best, so that it would contrast more against his hollow's agreement. But Aizen also knew that he'd talked to Grimmjow, and knew that he'd have good reason to join him even if he hated him. He didn't want Aizen to just kill him.

His hollow wisely remained quiet for once, apparently sensing Ichigo's extreme distaste for listening to anything he had to say.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity of thinking it over, Ichigo let out a harsh sigh. "There is no way I'd—"

And then Aizen interrupted him, still wearing that irritating smile. "Ah, but before you give a definite answer, perhaps I should make sure that all parties concerned have had their say in the matter."

"What do you mean?" Ichigo glared at him, trying to figure out what he was getting at.

Aizen merely snapped his fingers, raising his voice slightly to call out to someone outside the room. "Please send in Szayel Apporo for me."

Immediately, a door opened to the side of the room and the pink-haired Espada waltzed in. Behind him, another unknown Arrancar carried in what looked like a mess of straps and wires connected to small, metal disks of some sort. As the two approached Ichigo, Aizen turned and began to walk away towards the back of the room.

Ichigo instinctively backed away, eyeing the two with caution. "What do you mean by all parties concerned, Aizen?" he asked again, feeling somewhat nervous now.

Szayel ignored his discomfort and walked right up to him, reaching out and grabbing his wrist disinterestedly, as though taking his pulse. Ichigo stepped back, trying to yank his hand away, but the Espada held tight, calmly taking a metal band from his assistant and clamping it around Ichigo's forearm.

Immediately, Ichigo felt as though a heavy weight had been placed across his shoulders, and he fought to stay on his feet, swaying slightly. Szayel took full advantage of this vertigo, taking his other arm and slapping a second band onto it, abruptly doubling the effect. Ichigo fell to his knees with a grunt.

That quickly, Ichigo found himself completely helpless as the scientist Espada turned back to his assistant, grabbing a few of the wires and disks. "This should take only a few minutes," he mentioned to the air in front of him.

"W-why... you..." Ichigo growled, barely able to get the words out. "What... what are you doing?"

Szayel smiled creepily at him, holding a wired disk in front of his face to show him. "Don't fret. These will cause _minimal_ damage, at the most. I am merely connecting my little device to several pivotal pressure points, both physical and spiritual. Once I activate it, I will be able to selectively suppress specific parts of your reiatsu at will."

That said, he pressed the disk to the center of the teen's forehead and something sticky held it firmly in place, leaving the wire dangling down into his face. Ichigo tried to flinch away, but found that he couldn't move enough to do so.

"Suppress...?" Ichigo bit out as the Espada applied several more disks to his head, and two on his chest where the Chain Deep and Soul Sleep lay. "Why?"

Szayel snorted slightly, shaking his head, but he still had a smile on his face. "Suppress just the Shinigami reiatsu, and your hollow reiatsu will come forward, obviously." He flipped his hair back over his shoulder and then stuck another disk into place on Ichigo's neck. "I think we're all interested to see what your inner hollow has to say."

Ichigo froze with horror. "_Oh, really?_" his hollow cackled, stirring for the first time in a while. "_Fascinating!_"

"N-no!" Ichigo growled, fighting against the force keeping him held down. If Szayel was right—if this worked—it would actually put his hollow in control! "You... can't... do this to me! You—!"

His struggling accomplished nothing, and Szayel attached one final disk to his skin, stepping back to examine his work with a satisfied smirk. "That should do it. Ready to begin, Aizen-sama?"

In the time the scientist had taken to put the device together, Aizen had reached his high throne, and now gazed calmly down at them from his seat. "Go ahead, Szayel Apporo," he consented.

"No!" Ichigo yelled, nearly thrashing in his efforts to remove even one of the metal disks now stuck to him. "No, you can't—AAAUGH!" As Szayel flipped a switch somewhere out of his sight, a chorus of pain ripped through his already weak limbs. It spread like fire through his body, finally coming to a focus around his chest.

And then, it was as though he'd been tugged backwards by the pain, like it had somehow physically pulled him away from himself. An endless moment later, all feeling finally ebbed away, leaving him numb.

His eyes opened by themselves, haunting laughter escaping from his lips.

In a panic, Ichigo lashed out at his hollow, trying to yank him back out of control of his body, but the hollow was strangely out of reach, leaving Ichigo merely to watch with dismay. "_No!_"

"Long time no see, Aizen-san," the hollow said with a grin, looking up as the mask slowly began to form across the left side of his face. "Was the pain part of that really necessary?"

Aizen's smile widened marginally, but it was Szayel who responded, giving the hollow a short, formal bow and a smile.

"I apologize. Unfortunately, you are the only one here in Las Noches that the device would theoretically have this effect upon, so testing it wasn't really an option."

"Never thought an Espada would have to stoop to making excuses," the hollow shot with a distinct snicker. "How long does this last?"

Szayel shrugged slightly, reaching up with one hand to twirl his pink hair around one finger. "Until I turn off the machine. I would advise you not to remove any wires until I do so, lest you risk your sanity."

"Can your Shinigami self still see what's going on?" Aizen asked, actually seeming somewhat curious. His calm, even voice carried down surprisingly well, considering the distance between them.

"No clue." Smirking, the hollow tilted his head slightly and closed his eyes, prodding mentally at his other half. "_Oi, you still there?_"

Ichigo just snarled at him in response. "_I hate you _so_ much._"

"_Oh, good. You're still your normal self._" The hollow's grin spread across his face in his sick amusement. "_If you can still hear us, then ignore everything I'm about to say to this guy, got it? I've gotta convince him that I want to help him, so don't go freaking out on me._"

Ichigo sent a few choice swear words in his hollow's direction, but the other had tuned him out already, focusing back on Aizen. "Che. Yeah, that jerk Ichigo's still here, unfortunately. Who cares? You wanted to talk to me, right?"

As the hollow spoke, Ichigo could feel him testing the strength in his arms. Those bands were still on each wrist, and the heavy effect still bore down on him, making moving more than a few inches impossible. Still, Ichigo noted with irritation that his other self didn't seem to have any trouble speaking despite this.

Aizen smiled mildly at the hollow's question. "True. I have several questions for you, ah..." he paused. "Shall I call you Kurosaki Ichigo as well?"

The hollow cackled eerily. "You're joking, right? That loser Ichigo and I are on totally different levels; you _better_ not associate me with him." He grinned, obviously anticipating the man's next obvious question.

"Very well," Aizen gave him a polite nod. "Then your name is...?"

"I ain't got a name," the hollow responded clearly with another horrible laugh. "And I don't need one! I am who I am, get it?"

Aizen's smile deepened just a bit. "I see. In that case, it is nice to finally speak with you, Hollow-san. Our last encounter, I admit, rather intrigued me."

"Which is why you brought us here, obviously," the hollow mentioned, still with that out-of-place grin. "You _were_ just going to kill us, before I took over. And then you changed your mind."

Aizen nodded in acknowledgement, resting his chin lightly on one hand. "That I did. I have not previously had the opportunity to study in depth the phenomena of a hollow living within the soul of a Shinigami. Tell me, how does that feel?"

"How it feels?" the hollow repeated somewhat incredulously. He snickered again, shaking his head as much as the suppressing force around him would allow. "Which part? Being trapped within the depths of my own mind? Or having to put up with the sheer idiocy that is Ichigo?"

That comment seemed to amuse Aizen, and his smile grew even as Ichigo inwardly seethed at his hollow's insult. "You speak as though you consider your Shinigami side to be a total waste."

"Che," the hollow shrugged him off arrogantly. "_You've_ seen what he's like. There's only so much use an ignorant jerk like that can have before it's better just to have him out of the way."

"_Ignorant jerk?_" Ichigo protested, struggling once again to regain control. "_Listen, if you don't knock it off with the insults, I _swear_ I'm going to-_"

Frustratingly, the hollow didn't even seem to notice his efforts, though he did turn his attention inwards to address him. "_Didn't I tell you to ignore everything I'm saying?_" he snickered. "_Geez, it's like you're going _deaf_, too!_"

Ichigo fumed. Convincing Aizen or not, that was taking it _way_ too far. It wasn't just talk; not when the hollow obviously _meant_ every insult he used. Angrily, he shoved once last time at the other in a failed attempt to send him back to his inner world.

"Is something the matter, Hollow-san?" Aizen's voice broke through their argument, and the hollow grinned up at him, meeting the man's steady gaze. Even Ichigo could see that Aizen actually meant that he'd noticed the inner conversation and wanted to know the topic.

"Not with me, no," the hollow replied with a disinterested tone, specifically not answering that unspoken question. "Not that it'd really be any of your business if there was. Now, Aizen-san, I'm sure you didn't call me out here so you could play psychiatrist with me." With a chuckle, he imitated the ex-captain's voice. 'Now, how does that make you _feel_?' Ha! Next thing I know, you'll be diagnosing us with Multiple Personality disorder!"

Aizen raised an eyebrow, which only prompted more snickers out of the hollow. "I haven't known many hollows to have such an... obvious sense of humor," he mentioned with a hint of interest.

"Don't have much else to do all day; I never said I _wasn't_ crazy." The hollow hauntingly laughed again. "But you're avoiding the point. What do you want with me, really?"

The other man's calm smile never wavered. "I'm assuming you heard what was said earlier?"

The hollow's grin remained just as steady. "Before or after the massive amounts of pain?" he asked pointedly.

"I apologize again for that," Aizen said smoothly. Then, he apparently decided to take the comment as meaning that the hollow hadn't heard the conversation. "Ichigo and I were discussing a certain preposition I made to him a week ago. Hollow-san, what are your thoughts on joining me?"

The hollow tilted his head slightly, giving the other man a lopsided smile. "At the moment?" he asked almost tauntingly. "You said yourself; me and Ichigo have got no real reason to be on one side or the other in this war of yours. I don't know squat about you or Urahara-san, and I really couldn't care less." His grin widened. "So, make me care."

Aizen leaned back slightly in his chair, watching the hollow closely.

Ichigo could only stare in disgusted disbelief. Somehow, his hollow had managed to verbally flip-flop the roles in this conversation, turning it around so that suddenly Aizen had to be the one listing pros and cons of joining.

The hollow apparently caught his thought, because he snickered at him. "_Like any good job seeker at an interview: act like you're the one with the skills, and you're just deigning to come offer your services to the company._"

Ichigo decided determinedly not to answer him. Instead he tried his best to glare at Aizen, a feat which proved difficult when he couldn't even control his own eyes.

"Have you been told about the events of 100 years ago, when Urahara Kisuke was banished from Soul Society?" Aizen finally replied, apparently starting in on his first reason for why the hollow should want to join him.

"_Yes,_" Ichigo seethed in response, even though the man couldn't hear him. "_When you _framed_ Urahara-san for the hollowfication of eight captains and vice-captains in yet another attempt to get the Hougyoku. He told me about it months ago._"

The hollow's outward expression didn't change at the information Ichigo offered. "No, I haven't," he said. "Enlighten me."

Aizen gave a small, barely perceptible nod. "100 years ago, a rather large group of Shinigami were attacked and forcefully experimented upon. By the time authorities found them in the labs of 12th division, they had all been transformed into hybrids—half-Shinigami, half-hollow."

Ichigo could only growl low to himself at the half-truths the man was trying to feed them. "_He's the one who attacked them. Urahara was trying to save them from completely becoming hollows due to Aizen's botched-up job._"

"Eh. Doesn't surprise me that Urahara-san would do that, all things considered," the hollow conceded with a smirk, nodding downward to indicate his own state, including the mask that had now covered a good half of his face. "Your point?"

"Urahara Kisuke was banished for his crimes, but can you guess what the Central 46's reaction was to the new hybrids, who were merely victims in the situation?" Aizen paused long enough for a response from the hollow, but wasn't given one. Smiling, he continued. "They were to be dispatched as any other hollow."

Though he couldn't move his actual body, Ichigo mentally clenched his hands into fists, his teeth grinding together. He'd already known about that, too, but the reminder that the governing body of Soul Society had rejected the Vaizard as real people—as potential allies—not once, but _twice_, only served to make him even angrier than before.

"So, it'd be easy enough for them to make the same verdict in my case," the hollow concluded, still smirking ominously. "And?"

Purposefully, Aizen laced his fingers together and leaned his elbows on the arms of his chair, giving the hollow a level look. "As soon as I saw that mask forming across your face at our first meeting, I knew that you and Ichigo would quickly become outlawed and hunted down just as quickly as the others were for what Urahara Kisuke did to you. That was my entire reason for bringing you here. Will you reject that sanctuary now?"

"Che." The hollow's response was quick and decisive, and he shook his head with his usual grin. "Like I care about sanctuary from that disorganized bunch of wannabe protectors. In case you hadn't noticed, five teenage _humans_ and a _cat_ just managed to break into Seireitei and defeat most of their best captains. I don't care if those humans _did_ have a bit of help; you can't deny that those fools are just a bunch of pushovers with extremely stupid rules."

"True enough." Aizen's expression still did not change as he regarded the hollow, and neither did his tone. For a long moment, he fell silent, appearing to think about that, before he finally asked, "Would you rather I let you leave, then? I could arrange for Ulquiorra to take you back to Karakura town, or even simply to release you into Hueco Mundo, if you would rather."

Ichigo mentally scowled. "_Followed quickly by whoever he decides to send after us to kill us,_" he added bitterly.

The hollow merely snorted at Aizen's suggestion. "You'll arrange for him to take me, huh? Ha! I don't need your _permission_ to leave, Aizen-san. I _told_ you to give me reasons to _stay_." He cackled once more. "Do _not_ assume I'm as weak as the idiot you've been dealing with these past weeks. Once I get Ichigo out of my way, then if I wish to go, I'll do so at my leisure."

For some unknown reason, Aizen's smile widened a touch. "I could arrange that as well," he said easily.

Immediately, the hollow's expression darkened. "Arrange what?"

"You want Ichigo out of your way, and I have no use for him if he refuses to join me. Szayel Apporo," he didn't remove his eyes from the hollow even as the pink-haired Espada stepped forward again, "It is possible for that device to be made more portable, correct?"

The thought of this machine being permanently switched on made Ichigo's blood run chill. To be stuck like this _indefinitely_?

However, Szayel didn't even have a chance to speak before the hollow burst suddenly into a fit of laughter, his eyes sharpening dangerously. "If you really think I need _help_ with Ichigo, then you're much less perceptive than you first appear, Aizen-san." He flicked his hand quickly to wave them both off, overcoming the weight enough to make the movement seem unforced. "Trust me; three days, and Ichigo will be out of the picture, completely without your interference."

One of Aizen's eyebrows arched gracefully. "Oh? Are you so confident in your abilities?"

"Are you so unconfident in them?" came the quick reply, the hollow still grinning. "I'd give a demonstration of my power, but honestly, I don't feel like it." He gave a vague tug on his arms, as though to imply that he could get out of the grasp of the crushing weight if he really wanted to.

"I see. In that case, Hollow-san, what _can_ I do for you?" As he once again rested his chin on one hand, Aizen's expression became calculating.

In the following silence that rang through the room, the hollow's expression faded to a mostly-serious frown as he thought, his gaze steadily fixed on the confident man's face. Suspicious, Ichigo wondered what he was thinking. What _would_ the insane hollow want out of Aizen, anyway?

"What exactly would you use me for in your army, if I were to agree?" the hollow asked guardedly.

Aizen cocked his head slightly. "I would have thought a hollow simply to be eager to fight in whatever capacity required it. But somehow, I sense that for you, the thrill of battle—while a good incentive—will not make a solid reason to stay. Instead, I shall let you in on my plans, so that you can better understand my goals."

That immediately earned the attention both of Ichigo and his hollow. Even Szayel looked up as though that idea disturbed him somewhat, though the Espada said nothing as he continued to observe.

"As you have pointed out yourself," Aizen began, "the laws in Soul Society are... lacking. The Gotei 13 answers to the Central 46. They, in turn, answer to the King of the Soul Society. Any time an order comes from above, those below must follow, no matter how illogical the command."

The hollow nodded with a smirk. "Like the order to publicly execute an unseated Shinigami with the thing that's used only to kill high-class criminals, for the crime of saving a kid's life and consequently being late coming home."

Aizen's smile twitched upward. "Exactly. Now, tell me. Have you or Kurosaki-san ever heard of the Soul King?"

Ichigo's mind automatically flashed to the King's Key, and once again, images of the destruction of Karakura Town filled his vision. With a growl, he shook them away as the hollow answered easily, "Not a clue. Though I assume, by way of the title 'King,' that he's the man in charge."

"It is not a man." Abruptly, Aizen's tone was icy and his expression hardened the slightest fraction. "It's not a Shinigami, nor is it a hollow. It's not even a real being, though supposedly the thing has sentience of some sort. And it also has enough raw power to effectively rule Earth, the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, Hell, and any other dimension connected to it. _That_ is the kind of power that I will gain; that you will share part in should you choose to join me."

The hollow snorted a little, but he couldn't hide his interest in the idea of the sheer power Aizen had just offered him. "Pretty impressive. And what, exactly, will _you_ use all that power for?"

Aizen smiled. "Surely, you do not expect me to give all of my secrets away?"

"Thought I'd ask," he said offhandedly, his creepy grin spreading across his face once more. "Wouldn't do me much good to rule a world if you're planning on, say, completely destroying it, after all."

The other man nodded demurely. "I assure you, so long as you do not fail me, your compensation will not be compromised."

The hollow's smile only grew more insane. "I'm sure. That it?"

With a mental growl, Ichigo struggled for control again, to no avail. "_Are you insane? You're trying to ask for even _more_ from him?_"

Aizen, however, didn't seem phased at all, merely tilting his head slightly as he watched the hollow. "As I mentioned before, Hollow-san, I find you quite fascinating. Do you know why?"

"My sparkling personality?" the hollow quipped dryly, immediately laughing at his own joke.

"Exactly." Aizen, conversely, didn't seem to be joking in the slightest. "Allow me to tell you something. As you might imagine, I have been working with Shinigami/Hollow hybrids for quite some time now, trying to perfect the balance required for the maximum increase in power. Yet to this day, there remain minor flaws in that balance."

The hollow's overly smug grin returned. "Flaws you don't see in me?" he guessed arrogantly.

Aizen neither confirmed nor denied this. "My Arrancar have been the greatest success thus far. Grant Shinigami powers to a powerful hollow, and adaptation to those powers seems to occur naturally. Still, this adaptation never turns out to be complete. While Arrancar gain a zanpakutou, most prefer not to use it at all. They are skilled enough in its use, but even drawing the sword is often a last resort."

Still standing several feet away, Szayel nodded slightly to himself. "True enough," he admitted freely. "The true power we gain from the access to Shinigami powers is the return of our reasoning ability; the freedom we gain from our instincts. Even releasing our zanpakutous returns our bodies even further to our previous hollow powers."

The hollow didn't respond to this, so Aizen went on, shaking his head disappointedly. "Every Shinigami I've witnessed gaining hollow powers, on the other hand, favor their Shinigami abilities to an even worse degree. A few can manage to pull off the cero technique, and sometimes they even make small attempts at sonido, but the rest of their potential, they channel straight towards strengthening their zanpakutou's abilities. Such a waste."

Somewhat offended by that, Ichigo's eyes narrowed. That's all _he'd_ ever done, too, but that's all he'd ever been taught to do. Nothing else _could_ be done with the hollow powers, short of losing all control and becoming completely a hollow.

Like now, for instance. Ichigo tried hard not to concentrate on the hollow mask he could sense creeping onto his face, now starting to make its way to across the right side as well as the left. The hollow himself snickered as he noted Ichigo's discomfort. "And? What's your point?" he shot at Aizen.

The other man leaned back in his chair, still watching the hollow carefully. "Strangely, I have not yet seen _you_ use many hollow powers, despite being very obviously the hollow half of your soul. I do not doubt your ability to use them—your skill with sonido was proficient enough—and so your use of Ichigo's Shinigami powers, including the Getsuga Tenshou ability, is rather remarkable."

Aizen smiled at him, and then went on. "It implies, you see, that you instinctively use both sides of your powers; hollow _and_ Shinigami. The extent to which you do so could prove... fascinating."

The hollow seemed to enjoy the flagrant praise, his insane grin growing even deeper at Aizen's words. "_Hear that, Ichigo?_" he cackled gleefully."_He wants us to join him because he expects you and me to outclass everyone else in his army eventually!_"

"_Assuming he's telling the truth,_" Ichigo put in darkly. He would never trust a single word that came out of that man's mouth, especially if it was a compliment of any sort. And _especially_ if that compliment was directed at his hollow.

"I plan to attack the Soul King's throne with or without your assistance, if necessary," Aizen added, before continuing to feed the hollow's ego even further. "However, if I have your strength behind me, it will practically guarantee victory. As such, name your price. If you want sanctuary, it will be yours. If you desire to rule a world, name it. What do you think, Hollow-san?"

Ichigo awaited the hollow's response with a grim expression, a bad feeling in his gut as he sensed the sheer thrill rolling off his other self. This was it; would his inner demon keep to the plan, or ruin it all?

Finally, the hollow directed his eerie leer firmly on Aizen's face. "You make an interesting proposition, Aizen-san. A cut of your near limitless power, so long as I help you attain it?" He gave a small shake of his head. "You certainly know which desires tempt a hollow."

"Of course," Aizen said evenly, not even bothering to indicate their surroundings, the home of the hollows that he'd more than likely been studying for centuries. "Would you expect any less?"

"Ha!" The hollow shifted just a little, suddenly tensing. "Okay, Aizen Sousuke! Remember what I said: three days! You can count on it!"

With that, he sent a burst of reiatsu at the bands on his arms, temporarily overloading them and sending them on the fritz. In an instant, the hollow held several of the wires in his hand, and before Szayel could even begin to protest, he gave a sharp jerk, yanking them away from his skin.

The result was immediate: pain once again enveloped Ichigo's whole body, strange purple sparks dancing across his skin between the remaining wires, and maniacal laughter filled the room. Ichigo and the hollow slammed into each other as his reiatsu was released from the bonds, and Ichigo instinctively grabbed for control again. The hollow's cackling morphed disturbingly into his own screams as the pain overtook them both.

Finally, Ichigo knelt alone on the floor of the room, large pieces of his hollow mask breaking off and shattering on the ground around him. His raspy breathing was slow and labored, and uncontrollable twitches spread through all of his limbs.

Abruptly, Szayel was upon him, checking over the wires and hastily removing several, muttering to himself under his breath. Ichigo wanted to shove him off, but found himself suddenly too exhausted, so he settled for a vague glare instead.

Once the scientist finished looking him over, apparently certain that no permanent damage had been done, he stood back, scoffing to himself. "Well, he certainly knows how to make a flashy exit," he commented.

"Indeed," Aizen agreed, chin once more resting on one hand. "Well, Kurosaki-san?"

Szayel took the bands off his arms, tossing them lightly to his assistant, and the immense weight lifted from Ichigo's shoulders.

As swiftly as he could manage, the orange-haired Shinigami got to his feet, backing away with a growl. "I'm gunna _kill_ you," he seethed at Aizen hatefully, hand going for Zangetsu. "I swear, you are gunna-"

To his surprise, Szayel chuckled to himself. When Ichigo redirected his glare on the pink-haired scientist, the Espada merely smiled at him. "You know; it's funny. You act more like a hollow than Hollow-san," he commented lightly. "So touchy."

Ichigo's teeth ground together, his grip on Zangetsu's hilt tightening even further. "Don't you _ever_ say that again!" he threatened dangerously. "Got it?"

Szayel backed off, but irritatingly, his smile remained. "Fascinating," he murmured quietly.

Before Ichigo could shoot a response at him, Aizen spoke up again, causing him to realize that the other man had stood from his throne. "Three days, your hollow said. I will be awaiting the outcome of this with interest."

The words shook Ichigo unexpectedly as it suddenly hit him what they really meant. Three days, and then he would have to have his 'hollow disguise' perfected. Three days, and they would have to figure out how to cloak Ichigo's reiatsu. Three days, and Ichigo would have to figure out how on earth he would ever manage to _act_ like his hollow; the insane laughter and perpetual grin on his face. Not to mention the whole deal with the mask itself.

Anger leaked away as a sense of hopelessness tried to take over, but Ichigo firmly shook it off. "He's not going to win," he said as confidently as he could, narrowing his eyes at Aizen and trying to ignore the fact that the lack of fire had left his tone feeling empty. "And neither are you, Aizen!"

The other man's continued smile was maddening. "We shall see, Kurosaki Ichigo. We shall see."

* * *

This was going to be a much longer chapter, so that I could finally get to the exciting stuff, but that last scene turned out way bigger than I expected it to, so I've decided to end it here. Next chapter, just to warn you, is going to be a doozy. Not necessarily in length, but definitely in content. (Evil laughter)

(cough) Anyway.

The machine Szayel used on Ichigo. XD Originally, this was going to be some sort of injected drug that the scientist would have developed for the same purpose, but at the time that I was writing it, I was in the middle of a sleep study. If you've ever had one, you'll know that they basically glue a whole bunch of wires and stuff to your head, to your chest, to your legs, etc. and then try to make you sleep like that. Inspiration struck.

So. My sleep disorder problems have gotten bad enough that my family and friends, and even my bishop, have become worried about my general health. (Note to self: Sleeping for a good 16+ hours a day on a regular basis tends to worry people.) Consequently, I'll be staying home from college for the next semester or so while we try to get this sorted out. I feel really bad about not going to school, but I hope that it will help me recover faster, so I can stop getting horrible grades.

The good news for you is that my not having schoolwork will possibly give me more time to write, depending on how things work out. I'm hoping that it won't take horrifically long for the next chapter to come out. (Well, 'horrifically long' in terms of _my_ usual update times, anyway.) Keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks again for all of the support you give me! I'm glad that at least one thing I'm doing makes people happy. =D

Till next chapter,

-Daricio


	7. Fight for Hope

Wow, I finally finished this! Amazing! XD

I'm sorry! The chapter ended up taking horrendously long to get out anyway, despite my efforts! These scenes just didn't want to get written!

To be fair, there's a lot of epic stuff that happens in it. Everything's finally starting to get moving again.

Just a reminder: Ichigo's future/past deviates from canon at about the time he got back to Karakura from Hueco Mundo after rescuing Inoue. Right about then, those pillars went down completely, bringing Karakura Town back to the living world, and allowing Aizen to activate his thing to make the king's key. I first mentioned this in the second chapter, and explained a little further in my author note for the third chapter, so because it's been a while, I thought I'd mention it again in case anyone's forgotten. (Pointed look at Obi)

And speaking of Obi-Quiet, thank you for betaing for me, Obi! And thanks to my sister, Shells, for helping me out with ideas and pushing me to keep going on this! And for helping me with plot stuff, too. You guys are both awesome!

Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

A gigantic, thick-shelled claw fell from above, and with a yell, Tatsuki dove to one side as far as she could, tucking into a roll. A split second later, the thing smashed through the hard-packed dirt where she'd stood just a moment before, sending large chunks flying.

"This is insane!" The words tumbled breathlessly from her mouth as she came up to her feet again, turning to keep the huge monster in her sights. It only moved with her, bringing its other huge claw to bear down on her. She dodged again, rolling into the increasingly heavy cloud of debris to escape its view. "This thing just doesn't get tired, does it?"

She didn't know what she'd expected when the crazy, green-clad shopkeeper had explained Hollows to her earlier, but this ridiculously huge, crab-looking monster wasn't it. Haunting yellow eyes lay sunken beneath a pale grey mask that spread over most of its upper body, and whenever its huge jaws opened in a strangely dual-toned roar, she could see a second mouth, complete with its own set of jagged teeth, set deep within the first. Its two huge pincer claws in front, of course, drew most of her attention, since they were the things being hurled at her at high speeds every few seconds.

Still, she wasn't about to let her surprise over its appearance—or over the fact that it chased her through a freaking huge training grounds that had somehow been hidden _beneath_ the city—stop her from proving her worth. Urahara-san had told her to try her strength against the hollow, so that's exactly what she'd do.

And obviously, if she wanted to get anywhere with this, it was time to quit dodging and start attacking.

As quickly as the thought came, she moved, running forward with a battle cry and leaping in between its many legs to slide under it. If this masked thing was anything like the crab it resembled, the underside would be unprotected.

A flash of triumph shot through her at the sight, and she pushed off the ground hard with both legs to send an upward punch at its stomach looming several yards above her. Her intuition had been right, and the creature's mask/shell didn't extend down there. The triumph vanished quickly, however, as her fist connected solidly with the hard flesh and absolutely nothing happened.

Then her upward momentum ran out and gravity kicked in. The hollow took advantage of her sprawled position and swept a claw beneath itself, aiming straight for her. Cursing, she braced for impact, unable to dodge in midair.

"Arisawa-san! Look out!" Tatsuki ignored Keigo's totally useless warning as the claw struck her on the right side, knocking the breath out of her and sending her flying. She winced, but thankfully didn't hear the sound of ribs cracking.

Miraculously, she managed to land on her feet, sliding a huge distance across the rocky ground before losing her balance and rolling head over heels until she skidded to a stop. That would probably leave a few good bruises.

Groaning, she tried to pull herself up, eyes whipping back up to keep the hollow in view.

Keigo hadn't stopped his annoyingly loud fretting from somewhere behind her. "Are you alright, Arisawa-san? Hey, answer me! Maybe you should try-"

"Shut up, Asano!" Tatsuki snapped at him without bothering to turn. Mentally, she made a note to herself to do a better job checking for eavesdroppers the next time she got into a loud argument with an Ichigo-impersonator in the middle of the school's hallway. The orange-headed jerk's concerned friends following her here was really the last thing she'd needed. "Either get over here and make yourself useful, or quit distracting me!"

He let out an indignant squawk at this, but Tatsuki was up and running again before he could give any sort of intelligent response (not that she thought Keigo was capable of one in the first place). She left him there to sputter as she ran around the monster's side, using its slow turning speed to give herself more time to think.

Another shout drew her attention. "Arisawa, lure it this way!" Tatsuki glanced over at Ichigo's slightly saner friend, Mizuiro, as he waved both hands slowly above his head, looking strangely calm. "Get it to come directly at me!"

After only a moment's hesitation, she changed course, veering toward him. She had no idea what he had planned, but it had to be better than the blank she was currently pulling. "Hey, Crab-face!" she yelled at the hollow, just to make sure it knew where its target was headed. "Over here, you big lug!"

Unexpectedly, as it turned itself around to point its left side in her direction (so it could get maximum speed, she assumed), it responded verbally, the jawbone of the mask parting just enough to let out a few deep, throaty words: "It... really hurts! Please! Let me... eat you!" With that, the hollow lunged towards her.

Tatsuki almost froze in surprise, her eyes going wide as her mind registered the fact that—contrary to what she'd assumed—the monster was actually smart enough to know how to speak a real language.

Thankfully, her body's honed instincts kicked in as the hollow neared her at an alarming speed, and she scrambled out of the way at the last second, sending the monster running blindly towards whatever Mizuiro had in mind. "Go for it!" she yelled breathlessly.

The boy had already started moving, disappearing behind one of the huge boulders that lay scattered across the battle-torn ground. Before she could even start to wonder what he was doing, the hollow rammed itself sidelong into the rock, legs skittering on the stone as it tried to maintain its balance. Motion at the top caught her attention a split second before a brief avalanche came tumbling down on the monster, trapping it beneath a layer of heavy rocks.

Slowly, the clattering of stone on stone died down as the debris settled, and for a long moment, a solemn silence fell over the training grounds.

"YYYYYYYYYYYEEEEESSSSS! YAHOO! You did it!" Despite having done nothing himself, Keigo was the only one who cheered, doing an elaborate victory dance across the area until he stood by his friend. Mizuiro had already slid down from his previous perch, still eyeing the downed hollow distrustfully. "Mi-Mi-Mi-Mizuiro! That was awesome!" Tears of over-exaggerated joy streamed down Keigo's face as he babbled.

Mizuiro purposefully ignored him, dusting off his shirt for a moment and looking up at Tatsuki. "Was it just me, or did it say something to you?"

Tatsuki frowned at the pile of rock as she gave a tight nod. "It seemed to be in a lot of pain. From what, though? Certainly not from anything I did to it." Her punch had not only been completely ineffective, she was pretty sure she'd at least bruised her own hand even though she'd hit correctly.

Wordlessly, she and Mizuiro turned towards the empty plain a great distance away where they both knew their "trainer" stood watching them. Tatsuki still wasn't entirely sure that she trusted the man, his learn-by-doing teaching style, or his creepy black cat. Had he hurt the hollow while capturing it to bring it here? And why hadn't he told them that the creature they were supposed to be trying to kill was intelligent?

Keigo ruined the serious mood by turning away from his celebration of their victory to start whining. "You're not even paying attention to me! Why have you become so cold to me, Mizuiro?" Tatsuki couldn't help but to shoot him a look of barely-concealed annoyance as his voice reached pitches that even she would have had to work to achieve.

"I'm listening to you, Asano-san," Mizuiro replied disinterestedly, already pulling out his cell phone. The device made several quick beeps as he tapped the buttons, making Tatsuki wonder for a moment if he even got service way down here.

"Why?" Keigo sobbed as his friend continued to pretend that he wasn't there.

Tatsuki sighed, using the wrist band on her right arm to wipe sweat from her forehead, glad that she'd decided to wear her light karate gi for this. "He's only doing it because you keep reacting to it," she told Keigo exasperatedly. "Can't you be even slightly mature for a single—"

The sound of rock shifting caused all of them to jump, whirling around swiftly. To their horror, the hollow slowly began to emerge from the debris, letting out a pained roar.

"It's aliiiiiiiiiive!" Keigo squawked, throwing his hands up in the air and running in small circles.

Gritting her teeth, Tatsuki swore under her breath as she grabbed the panicking boy by one arm. Mizuiro seemed to have gotten the same idea, getting hold of Keigo's other arm, and together they ran, dragging him away from the hollow.

"Why did we even bring you along in the first place?" Tatsuki yelled over Keigo's squeals as she glanced back at their swiftly-recovering enemy. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

Mizuiro stayed silent as he also chanced a look backwards. Keigo remained of no help whatsoever, though he did somehow manage to find his own footing and start running by himself.

Tatsuki's mind raced as she thought through their options. As good as she was, none of her punches or kicks would have any effect on this guy if even dropping a ton of rocks on its head only temporarily dazed it.

What exactly did this Urahara guy expect them to do here? He hadn't given them any sort of weapons, and he certainly didn't seem like the type to jump in and rescue them if anything went wrong. Briefly, she felt a pang of regret that she had chosen not to tell her parents where she was going.

"What if we try to talk to it?" Mizuiro suggested, breaking through her thoughts. Tatsuki turned to give him an incredulous stare as they ran, and he went on to clarify, "It's obviously intelligent, so perhaps we can make it stop attacking?"

As if to drive his point home, the hollow let out a bellowing roar as it finally regained its bearings enough to start after them. "Why! So... cruel! So much... pain! Why?"

Keigo's voice remained high-pitched with fear. "And what exactly would we say to it?" he demanded. "Oh, hey! Sorry for trying to beat up on you a second ago! Didn't think you'd care so much! Let's be friends!"

Tatsuki shook her head. "Hate to say it, but I think he's right. There's no way it'll—Hey, what are you doing!"

"Mizuiro! NO!"

Mizuiro had not only stopped running, but as the hollow got closer, he actually turned and started heading straight towards it. Somewhat surprised by his actions, the hollow slowed slightly, its eyes seeming to narrow as it focused in on the boy.

Gritting her teeth, Tatsuki skidded to a halt and turned to go back after him. That was it; she took back every comment she'd ever made about the black-haired teen being the saner one of Ichigo's friends.

"Why are you in so much pain?" The crazy teen's voice remained aggravatingly calm as he faced down the gigantic creature. "Where does it hurt?"

His words seemed to baffle the hollow, and it came to a dead stop, letting out a low growl as it considered the boy. Mizuiro stood with his hands spread by his sides, as though to show that he meant no harm.

Unsure now, Tatsuki held back, her eyebrows knitting together with worry and a faint sense of hope at the strange scene before her. Would this actually work?

Leaning back on its hind legs, the hollow raised one gigantic claw, not in a fast, overhead sweep towards them as it had done before, but cautiously, moving it toward itself. With a sharp sound like sandpaper on sandpaper, it rubbed against its chest, moaning in its dual-toned voice. "Hurts... So hungry... Hurts!"

"The hole?" Mizuiro asked in confusion, head tilting to get a better look at where the hollow was indicating. "But that's..."

Tatsuki's expression hardened as she made the same observation. The creature's claw scraped along the edges of a perfectly circular hole that lay just below its lower jaw; a hole that had been bored completely through the hollow's entire body.

But that didn't make sense. That Urahara guy had told them that _all_ hollows had a hole like that; the mask and the hole supposedly were the main traits that marked a hollow. If that was true, and if the hole caused that much pain, did that mean that all hollows were like this?

"How can I help?" The black-haired teen called up with concern. "How do we stop the pain?"

With a loud bellow, the hollow slammed both claws hard into the dirt, causing all of them to jump back in surprise. "Let me _eat you_!" it screamed.

That was all the warning they had, and suddenly the hollow had leapt towards them again, mouth opening wide as it came down upon Mizuiro.

Tatsuki's feet were moving even before her mouth could form the other boy's name in a scream. Mizuiro dove to the side, trying to roll away, but she could already see that he had no idea how to actually pull off the maneuver.

Desperately, she launched herself into the air, swinging a leg around for a kick. Hopefully, she could at _least_ plant a hit on the thing's eye to distract it.

Beneath her, the black-haired boy slammed shoulder-first into the hollow's legs, and it teetered, lashing out with its front claws. Tatsuki's foot connected solidly with the right-hand edge of its gray mask, missing the soft eye, but shoving it further off-balance.

With a scream of frustration, the crablike thing toppled over. Tatsuki scrambled to find hand-holds on the rough shell as it hit the hard-packed dirt and plowed trenches through it. Finally, the hollow slid to a stop, lying dazed for a moment. It would be up again in no time, she knew.

"Run!" Keigo yelled from behind them. Tatsuki wasted no time in complying, jumping down from her precarious spot and taking off the moment her feet hit the ground. Mizuiro didn't seem to have been hurt, running just ahead of her towards his friend.

Just as she'd thought, she could hear the hollow picking itself up already, its overlapping dual-toned roars sounding much more like screams to her now. Bending low, she pumped out more speed, trying to ignore the sounds and the ever-growing stitch in her side.

Irritatingly enough, the crazy boy remained as calm as ever as he called back to her, "We need to find cover."

"Brilliant deduction, Einstein!" Tatsuki snapped back automatically, her eyes sweeping the area for a likely spot.

Besides the large rocks everywhere—and trying to hide behind those while the hollow was still _watching_ them seemed like a rather stupid idea—she couldn't see anything remotely shelter-like. Unless...

An image of the monster's legs scrabbling against stone flashed into her head, and immediately she pointed. "Get to the top of the rocks! Use our head start to climb as high as you can!"

Keigo let out a quick cheer, shedding thick tears of relief that a plan had been made. "Yes! It can't climb! That's perfect!"

Mizuiro and Tatsuki blurred past him as he stood there celebrating, each headed for a different rock, and hurriedly, Keigo scrambled to follow them. These weren't the biggest boulders in the training grounds, but they were the closest, and from the tops they'd get higher than the hollow could immediately reach. That could buy them time.

Tatsuki reached her boulder and jumped onto it, hands and feet scrambling for holds on the rough surface. The moment she gained purchase, she climbed as fast as she could go without slipping and falling. She didn't let herself pause to look down as the hollow's cries came ever closer.

"AAAIIIIIEEE!"

"Keigo!"

And of course, the hollow went after the one member of the group who hadn't tried to attack it yet; the one it would see as the most vulnerable. Tatsuki whipped her head around in time to watch the brown-haired boy drop from halfway up a nearby rock face, a deadly claw smashing into the stone where his head had been not two seconds before.

Keigo skidded unsteadily on the uneven ground by the hollow's feet, still screaming as he tried to stumble away. He seemed to be mere moments from toppling over as he swerved around the mess of rampaging legs and swinging claws. "I'm gunna die, I'm gunna DIE!" he squealed.

In a heartbeat, Mizuiro managed to get down from his own rock, setting off at a dead run toward his friend. "Run, Keigo!"

"AAAHH!" Finally, Keigo found his footing and zipped out from under the crab-like thing, forcing it to turn slowly around in order to reach him. It screamed again as it did so, drowning out his panicked sobbing, and then it took off after him.

"Run!" Mizuiro continued chasing after the two, though Tatsuki had no idea what he thought he'd do if he actually caught up to them, considering that the hollow had been chasing _him_ before this. She suspected that he didn't have any idea either.

Reluctantly, she jumped back down to the ground and started to run after them.

And then her heart froze as Keigo, trying desperately to find a place to hide, dove sideways into a shallow canyon that ran several hundred yards into the distance. The hollow followed right behind him. To her horror, its sides only just barely scraped the walls of the narrow trench in the ground, meaning that while it fit in the gap, the brown-haired teen now couldn't get around it. And the canyon, she could see, didn't have a way out on the other end.

"Keigo, you idiot!" Abruptly, she doubled her speed, not sure what she, herself, planned to do, but knowing she needed to get over there _now_.

"Stay on top!" Mizuiro called to her, running along the lip of the canyon instead of dashing inside. "I'll take the left side!"

Tatsuki gave a curt nod and leaned right, taking his advice and staying out of the cut in the ground. No sense in getting herself trapped, too.

Keigo's continued screams echoed off the walls of his narrow prison, though thankfully the hollow couldn't move very quickly in the confined space. It fell behind the yelling teen, but that still didn't help very much when he couldn't get out.

All too quickly, they approached the abrupt end of the canyon, and when Keigo spotted the sheer cliff he ran towards, he shrieked all the louder. "No, no, no, I'm gunna DIE! Heeeeelp!"

Somehow, Tatsuki forced her legs to push faster, and soon she found herself running right alongside the hollow in the trench below her.

"HELP!"

And without thinking, she leapt over the edge, landing hard on the hollow's bumpy back. Like the last time she'd ended up in that position, her feet slid across the shell's slippery surface, but as she came down, she latched her hands onto the edges of the mask and held on tight.

Angered, the hollow reared up high, screaming its frustrations at her and lashing its front claws around in a wild attempt to throw her off. The whole world seemed to whirl around her as she clung desperately, a yell pulled from her lungs only to be lost in the chaos around her.

"Arisawa-san!" Tatsuki barely caught a glance of Keigo with his back up against the dead end, staring at her in stunned disbelief.

"Run, you idiot!" she cried in his general direction, scrambling to find a foothold or two as she slid around on the hollow's shell. "Go under it!"

Keigo didn't wait to be asked twice. He took off running, winding precariously around the thrashing legs towards freedom.

Finally, Tatsuki's foot found a hold, and she jammed it there tightly, bracing herself against it and keeping her body pressed to the hollow's shell. It roared at her again and began pounding at its own body with its claws, hoping to hit her off. Tatsuki grit her teeth, fingers slipping as everything shook beneath her, and then—

"Aaaauugh!" The sky was down, and the ground rushed at her from above at an alarming pace. Heart racing, she twisted in midair, trying to flip upright—

_Crunch_.

A sickening snap rang through the air as agony shot through her right leg, the rest of her body hitting the canyon wall a moment later, followed swiftly by the ground. Tatsuki screamed as her vision nearly went completely white from the pain.

"Arisawa!" She could hear Mizuiro from somewhere in the distance, but the hollow's triumphant yell as it rounded on her drowned everything else out. When she could see again, all she saw was the gaping maw of the beast.

Strangely, her attention was drawn by Keigo's lack of response, and as she struggled in vain to sit up, her leg still molten fire at the knee, she glanced up at him, surprised to see an uncharacteristically grim, serious expression on his face. He stood only a short distance away, and although his way out lay clear, he stayed put, one arm slightly extended toward her as though to push the hollow away.

"Asano, get out of here!" Tatsuki turned back to the hollow, suddenly resigned to her fate. Gritting her teeth and ducking her head under one arm, she braced herself as it started to come down hungrily upon her.

"NO!" Running footsteps sounded. "AAAAHHH! TAKE _THAT_!"

And suddenly, a flash of light consumed her sight again as something exploded above her head. The hollow screamed, scuttling away back towards the dead end.

Tatsuki blinked, looking around as her vision slowly cleared, trying to figure out what had just happened.

Keigo stood over her in a way that would have been protective if he weren't staring at his own, slightly smoking hands in shock. Mizuiro's head poked out over the lip of the canyon from above, disbelief written all over what she could see of his face. The hollow began to whine in a low tone, pincers rubbing at the holes in its mask where its eyes shone through.

"What... was that?" Mizuiro called unsurely.

Keigo swallowed. "I..."

Before he could say much more, the hollow cut him off with another roar of anger, facing the two of them once again. With a yelp, Keigo tried to take a step backwards, tripping over Tatsuki and sending further pain spiking through her leg. She hissed, grabbing at it as Keigo hit the ground beside her, but her gaze didn't leave the hollow.

Whatever Keigo had done just then, it hadn't been enough to take care of the problem. The hollow was still going to—

"Bakudou number 4, Crawling Rope." Abruptly, a crackling yellow rope of light sprung from the ground, wrapping itself around the hollow. It screamed its displeasure, but despite its struggling it couldn't break itself loose.

A slow clap started up from the open end of the canyon behind them. Twisting as much as she could without aggravating her leg injury, Tatsuki turned that direction to see a smiling Urahara walking up towards them, followed closely by the large, hulking man named Tessai and the black cat they'd seen before.

"Well done!" the green-clad shopkeeper said cheerily to the group of teens. "Very well done!"

None of them seemed able to come up with anything to say to that. Mizuiro began to crawl down the side of the canyon wall almost sheepishly to join the others, and Tatsuki turned to examining her likely-broken leg. If she sat perfectly still, it didn't hurt as much, but the moment she moved it even a centimeter, it blazed with pain again.

Urahara tossed her something, which she caught with a bit of surprise. "Here, eat that. It'll help."

After a moment's hesitation, seeing that the thing—a big pill—had what looked like a skull and crossbones printed on the side of it, she decided firmly never to eat anything this guy handed her. "What just happened?" she demanded, gesturing vaguely towards Keigo with the pill.

The other boy still seemed to be in shock, through his hands had stopped smoking. He looked up at the shopkeeper with worried curiosity.

A fan materialized in the older man's hand, and he waved it at her patronizingly. "Exactly what I'd hoped, of course! Deprived of any weapons or means of defense, Asano-san has developed his own means to defend himself and others. That's one down, two of you to go!"

Keigo protested, jumping in sudden panic. "H-hey wait! Why me? I didn't even want to be here! I got dragged here by him!" He pointed wildly at Mizuiro, who finally reached the bottom of the canyon. "I mean, alright, helping Ichigo is great and all, but I'm no fighter!"

Tatsuki scowled. "He's right you know. What gives? Kojima and I both worked way harder than he did to defeat that thing."

Urahara's smile never faded; if anything, it gained a smug, knowing look. "Who knows? Still, you've all made great progress! Asano-san, you can move on to the next level of training!"

"But I don't even know what I did!" Keigo whined pathetically, still looking panicked. "Much less how to do it again! I'm not gunna-"

"That's the reason for the next step of training," a deep voice interrupted as the black cat stepped forward. "To teach you what you did, and how to do it. That is my job. I am Yoruichi. Do you accept my help?"

Tatsuki stared at the cat as its mouth moved in time with the words. "Okay, either someone here's a brilliant ventriloquist, or that cat just talked."

Mizuiro frowned at it. "I think the cat just talked."

Shrieking loudly, Keigo took that fact far less calmly. "Why has the world gone insane?" he mourned, throwing both hands up in the air with tears streaming down his face again. "Whyyyyy?"

"After being attacked by a giant crab-hollow," Tatsuki pointed out dryly, "in an underground room the size of the city, is anything really that surprising anymore?"

Mizuiro bowed low to the black cat. "I'm sure that Asano-san will be most pleased to accept your help, Yoruichi-sensei. I certainly will be, once I reach the appropriate level."

"Why so formal?" Keigo sputtered, tears still falling. "You're such a terrible friend, Mizuiro!"

The cat, on the other hand, seemed pleased by Mizuiro's words and even bowed back to him slightly.

Tatsuki nodded in its general direction as well. "I'm going to keep going, too," she declared, ignoring her injured leg for now. She didn't care what this Urahara guy and his talking cat had in mind for them next. If it meant saving a friend—even a friend as stupid as Ichigo could be sometimes—she'd do whatever it took. "Let's do this."

* * *

"_And that,_" Ichigo finished with a puff as he completed another pushup, "_is all the Espada I've met already._" With that, he let himself roll over onto his back, slightly winded from the workout he'd been doing for the past hour or so. "_Unless you count Nell,_" he added as an afterthought.

His hollow responded with a vague hum of boredom from within the depths of his mind, his ever-persistent smirk still plastered on his face. "_And who's Nell?_"

Ichigo sighed, throwing an arm up over his eyes briefly as he wondered again how he'd gotten himself into this mess.

Recovering from Aizen's little trick had taken a lot longer than he'd like to admit, both physically and mentally. The shocks from that stupid reiatsu-suppressing machine had taken their toll, and the disturbing conversation with Aizen certainly hadn't helped either. Answering his hollow's random questions, strangely enough, had taken his mind off of the immense pressure he was under enough for him to cope with it all.

"_A little girl I met in Hueco Mundo's desert,_" Ichigo finally replied, closing his eyes to call up his mental image of the green-haired Arrancar and her two bizarre companions. "_She latched onto me and followed me around._"

His hollow gave a slow mental nod. "_Cute,_" he allowed, his grin becoming condescending. "_Why, exactly, did you let her tag along?_"

Ichigo shrugged slightly, then decided he'd rested long enough and moved to start a regimen of sit-ups. "_She wouldn't leave, and she wasn't hurting anything. And it turned out to be good to have her along. She used to be the third Espada, but she was attacked and weakened, which messed with her memory and changed her to a child form._"

A slow, impressed whistle sounded from his mind as Ichigo called up the image of Nell's adult form. "_Niiice. I hope you at _least_ managed to get a kiss out of her._" The hollow snickered at him as a blush blossomed across Ichigo's face.

Irritably, Ichigo forced himself to continue his sit-ups, especially when the memory of Nell nearly glomping him literally to death surfaced uninvited and the hollow's laughter grew more pronounced.

Clearing his throat and banishing the thoughts, Ichigo scowled, trying to direct the expression inward. "_Shut up,_" he muttered. "_Unless you have something actually useful to say._"

"_Hey, I told you what my reaction to her was,_" the hollow cackled, winking at him. "_I'd definitely like to try-_"

"_That's _not_ what I meant, and you know it,_" Ichigo growled, face still red.

Still snickering at him, the hollow looked up with an amused glint in his eye, but when he spoke, it was with a serious tone. "_Yeah, yeah. You want to know how to act towards the little girl form. Hate to break it to you, but she's kind of pathetic that way. Even assuming we actually find her out there without specifically searching for her, I'd probably ignore her. Maybe use her as a football._"

Ichigo sputtered slightly at the mental image his hollow sent him of a screaming Nell flying through the air toward a painted target in the sand. "Y-you can't just—!" he started aloud.

The hollow laughed again as the automatic image of Ichigo tossing Rukia down to Renji came to Ichigo's mind.

Flustered, Ichigo clamped down on his thoughts, focusing on not letting random memories flood the conversation without his wanting them to.

"_I suppose I'd make an exception for her if I knew she was actually powerful,_" his double finally told him with a mild shrug, still grinning. "_But you have to be careful not to let your foreknowledge give you away. Hollows typically don't go out of their way to help one another, so there's no good reason for you to let her hang around, even if she tried to follow you._"

Continuing to scowl at nothing while he did a few last sit-ups, Ichigo sighed. "_I know,_" he grumbled. "_But we'll need her help._" The hollow didn't have to answer; Ichigo already knew the problems he faced with that.

Ichigo climbed wearily up to his feet again, and then had to pause. Usually, sit-ups were the last thing in his workout before he started on something serious. Right now, though, he didn't have (or want) anything serious to do. If anything, he went through this rote routine merely as a way to tire himself out without having to think about it. Muttering under his breath, Ichigo instead started the routine over again, beginning with basic stretches.

"_What do you suggest I do, then?_" he asked the hollow bitterly. "_If a hollow wouldn't keep her around, and I'm supposed to act like you..._"

His hollow remained silent for several minutes after Ichigo trailed off, before finally smirking at him again. "_You could keep her as a pet,_" he suggested. "_She'd be kind of amusing. And we know the Espada have them; just look at how well Ulquiorra takes care of his favorite, orange-haired pet._"

For a moment, Ichigo hesitated, but with another brief mental image sent to him by his white double, he understood and a flash of anger surged through him again. "_I am not a pet,_" he growled dangerously.

"_Sure you're not,_" his hollow returned with a snicker. "_Come on, he even takes you on walks sometimes. And he nursed you back to health, and gives you food, and-_"

"Just shut up!" Ichigo snapped.

"_And you even bark and growl at people!_"

"Shut UP!"

The hollow only cackled at him mockingly, apparently thoroughly enjoying the mental image he'd conjured. The stoic Arrancar standing straight-backed with a leash in hand, the other end attached to the collar of a barking, angry-looking Ichigo sitting at his feet.

Ichigo swiped the image away, eyes flashing warningly. "I said knock it off!"

"Knock what off?"

Startled, Ichigo whirled to face the doorway as Grimmjow sauntered in casually and leaned up against the doorframe. Ichigo sputtered at him for several moments. "I-I wasn't talking to you!" he finally got out.

"Idiot," Grimmjow said, wearing a smug grin almost as irritating as the hollow's. "Anyone could see that from the way you jumped a mile the moment I said something."

"Who says I jumped?" Ichigo spat. Grimmjow only laughed.

"_See, there you are, growling at people again. Bad dog!"_

"I said SHUT UP!"

Grimmjow leered at him, suddenly tense with anticipation. "Make me, Shinigami. We never finished our fight."

Automatically, Ichigo glanced over to the wall where he'd propped up Zangetsu, and then, frustrated, deliberately turned his back on it. "No."

The Arrancar froze, his own sword already halfway unsheathed, and the smile dropped from his face. "What?"

"I said no," Ichigo repeated irritably, scowling at him. "I don't feel like fighting. Leave me alone."

"Don't feel like..." Grimmjow sounded as though he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. With a loud _chink_, he jammed his blade back into its sheath. "That's a bunch of bull! You stand there acting like you want to blast one of your Getsuga Tenshous through me, and you don't _feel_ like fighting?"

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "Go away. I'm a _little_ busy."

"Busy doing what?" Grimmjow snapped heatedly. "Losing your mind? Guess what? I don't give a rap. Pick up your sword, ya freaking coward."

Another surge of rage flared through he orange-haired Shinigami at the insults, but a feeling of hopelessness flooded over it and washed it away. "Just leave me alone."

For a long moment, the air was still, Grimmjow's disbelief palpable in the air between them. And then the silence was broken by an inner voice, sounding angrier than Ichigo had ever heard it before. "_That's _it_. This stops _now_._"

"Wha-"

A sharp yank jolted him abruptly inwards, and he found himself falling through blackness—then, with a splash, he sank into a dark ocean.

* * *

A small fairy dove for Rukia's head, and without a moment's thought, she brought Sode no Shirayuki up to defend. Tsubaki had a surprising amount of force despite his small size, and her attempt to flick him away turned suddenly into a shoving match.

"Push, Tsubaki!" the orange-haired girl directing the fairy urged, a look of fierce concentration on her face as she stretched both arms out before her.

Soft, sharp cracks rang in the air, and Rukia's eyes widened as her unreleased sword began to warp, a fine line slowly growing from the edge of her blade where the fairy had hit to the back.

Rukia twisted away, turning her sword to force Tsubaki off and above her head, and in the same movement leapt closer to Inoue, swinging at her midsection.

"Santen Kesshun!" A glowing yellow shield spun into place between them before the shinigami's sword could make contact. The attack bounced off, and Rukia rolled to the side. "Koten Zanshun!" And Tsubaki raced toward her exposed back.

As quickly as she could, Rukia raised her free hand up to aim over her shoulder as she tried to turn to face the new attack. "Hadou number 31, Shakka-"

"Oi, Rukia!"

The red light of her incantation-less kidou fizzled out as her head whipped around to view the newcomer, and an instant later, Tsubaki slammed directly into the small of her back, slicing her shihakushou open and sending her flying.

"Ah!" Inoue ran forward as the shorter girl hit the ground, rolling a few times before coming to a stop. The teenager looked suddenly devastated. "Kuchiki-san! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"Renji, you idiot!" Lifting her head up off the ground, Rukia shot a harsh glare at her old friend. "What do you think you're doing, yelling at me?"

The red-head looked completely unrepentant, standing casually at the head of a small group that had just entered the area. "You're too easily distracted," he brushed off her complaint. "Seriously, if a bug flew by, you'd blame it for messing you up."

Rukia's face darkened, barely hiding the blush she fought away. "Shut up, jerk! I would not!"

Inoue reached the black-clad girl's side and started to help her to her feet. "I'm so sorry," she babbled again. "H-here, let me help, Kuchiki-san. Ayame-"

Rukia only shrugged at her, pulling away once she'd gotten to a standing position again. "I'm fine, Inoue. Look, see? Not even a scratch; just a small hole in my shirt."

Inoue's frown turned puzzled as she examined Rukia's back. "Tsubaki... didn't...?"

"Not an _ounce_ of killing intent!" As if waiting for her to realize the outcome of the attack, Tsubaki flew in and bopped the orange-haired girl hard on the head, nearly knocking her over. "How do you think I'm supposed to do anything with _that_? Of course I didn't cut through nothing!"

"Ow!" Inoue cried out as her fairy took to pulling on her hair. "Ow, ow, ow, stop! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"No, you're not!" the tiny man yelled at her defiantly. "Because of you, you stupid woman, I'm completely useless! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Before she could respond, Renji stepped over and snatched Tsubaki straight out of the air, surprising him enough to make him lose his hold on the girl's hair. The red-head held him up to his face to look him over. "Che. Inoue-san, you've gotta quit letting your own powers push you around. You're a good hundred times bigger than this pipsqueak, and you—Ow!"

Abruptly, the little fairy was flung across the sparse training area, leaving Renji to nurse a tiny, faintly bleeding bite mark on the tip of his nose.

Rukia laughed mockingly at him. "Ha ha ha! Serves you right!"

"-and you _dare_ call me a pipsqueak? Tell that to your nose, you-!" Tsubaki kept up a running stream of insults for the next few minutes, directed at various people, as Inoue ran to Renji's side, apologizing. With a smirk and a satisfied nod, Rukia noted that despite the other girl's worrying, she also had a smile threatening to break out on her face.

Chad stepped forward then, clearing his throat slightly and forcing them all to take note of the rest of the group Renji had arrived with. Hanatarou peeked out from behind him, looking a bit awkward but amused by their antics, and Ikkaku stood back a ways laughing at them all. In the back of the group, Yumichika watched silently. Chad gave Rukia and Inoue a slow nod. "Are you ready?"

A relieved smile broke out on Rukia's face. "Urahara got the gate set up?"

Ikkaku grinned back, looking way too excited to be breaking into the world of the hollows with a small, mostly inexperienced group. "So we've heard, yeah. We're going to kick some hollow butt out there!"

Still rubbing his nose with one hand, Renji glanced up at them with a grin of his own. "And Taichou allowed us use of the Kuchiki's personal Senkaimon to get to Urahara's place. If you two are ready, let's do this."

Inoue gave a quick cheer. "Yes! We're ready! Let's go!"

"As ready as we'll ever be," Rukia agreed. "My reiatsu has completely recovered, and Inoue's skills have improved greatly; she doesn't even have to take the time to call out her fairies' names anymore. While a lot more training would be nice, we don't have the time. Is this everyone who is coming?" She looked around in slight worry at the small group.

Renji looked slightly put-off. "We barely managed to get Ikkaku and Yumichika along, on the technicality that neither of them are actually vice-captains. We kept getting shut down wherever we went."

Yumichika agreed, flipping his hair away from his face with one hand. "The sou-taichou really doesn't want us running this mission."

Rukia had to frown at that. She'd known that already—as it was, if Byakuya hadn't suddenly declared Renji "unfit for duty" due to giving up his vice captain position to help rescue her, then the red-head wouldn't be going along on this mission either—but she also knew why higher-ranked Shinigami weren't allowed to join her entourage.

Officially, she and her group of protectors were going on "vacation", but everyone knew where they were really headed: Hueco Mundo, to rescue Ichigo. A suicide mission, or so everyone seemed to think.

Hesitating a little, she turned to Hanatarou, who hadn't said much during this entire exchange. "Thank you for coming, Yamada-san. Your abilities will be much needed, but you know that this is dangerous. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

The shy boy shook his head hard. "I want to," he said firmly. "Unohana-san sort of had to make an exception for me to come as well. But you need someone who can heal, and I want to help Ichigo-san!"

Renji gave him a wide grin, clapping him on the back. "You said it, kid. So, let's go!"

Everyone else gave various cheers or nods of acknowledgement, and almost as one, they all turned and started toward the Senkaimon.

As they walked, Rukia's thoughts turned back to Ichigo. He'd done so much, risked so much, in his attempts to rescue her. Now, she could do the same for him. "Just hang on a little while longer, Ichigo," she whispered, a determined expression falling across her face. "We're coming."

* * *

_Sploosh!_

"Mmrph!" Panic began to take over Ichigo's system as he found himself deep underwater, swiftly running out of air. Ignoring the strange town he could see hazily at the bottom of the ocean, he began kicking desperately toward the surface.

He knew he couldn't make it to the far too distant surface in time, and the panic rose to new levels. He wasn't going to make it before—

"You moron!" Without warning, something rammed into his stomach, knocking out what little breath he had and propelling him even further down into the water. A moment later, he collided with a sunken building, which collapsed under his weight.

Instinctively, Ichigo took in a deep breath, immediately regretting the action as water rushed in and—

And he breathed it back out. And back in, and out. Blinking, Ichigo glanced down, suddenly confused. "I... I can breathe..."

A hand suddenly grabbed his face, wrapping almost completely around it as it yanked him up to his feet and then threw him a good hundred yards into the wall of another building. With a grunt, Ichigo tried to pull himself up again, debris crumbling all around him.

"Do you see this?" his hollow yelled at him. Ichigo lifted his head to see his white double storming towards him as though on solid ground above the rooftops. He made a wide gesture with both arms to indicate their waterlogged surroundings, his black and gold eyes flashing dangerously. "Don't you realize what you've been doing in here, you idiot?"

Slowly, trying to keep the angry hollow in his sights, Ichigo looked around him, taking in the small, underwater town that had apparently replaced the tall skyscrapers in his mind. Calm, blue light filtered in from the surface of the ocean above, illuminating buildings that all looked decrepit and abandoned, with windows shattered and roofs caving in on most that he could see.

Ichigo returned his full attention to his hollow, a frown setting in on his face as he realized why the other had become so upset. He said that Ichigo had done this? "How?" he asked breathlessly. "What happened here?"

The hollow rolled his eyes with an exasperated noise. "I thought for _sure_ when I told Zangetsu-san this place would flood if you got any sadder, that I was _joking_. This is pathetic, Ichigo!" And with that, he had his blade in hand, running headlong at the orange-haired Shinigami.

Ichigo barely got out of the way in time to avoid losing an arm, scrambling away from the hollow with a stream of bubbles in his wake. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "I thought we had a truce!"

The hollow let out creepy, high-pitched laughter. "And I thought we had a _deal_!" He came at Ichigo again, white Zangetsu swinging at his midsection. Ichigo ducked under it, but the hollow followed through with a kick to the side that sent him flying.

With some effort, Ichigo got his feet underneath him, sliding to a crouching position in the middle of the water as he braced himself to dodge again. His hollow scoffed at him with a dark expression, his voice low. "Che. Completely pathetic. Can't even get you to fight back."

Ignoring that, Ichigo straightened a little. "We did have a deal, and I've been holding up my end of it!" he protested, taking several steps away. "I've been trying to make this reiatsu masking thing happen; it just hasn't been working!"

"Because you keep pushing me away the moment we make any progress!" the hollow answered irritably. He lunged once more, and again Ichigo dodged his attack, a scowl on his face. The hollow grinned at him, a tight expression that bared his gritted teeth. "And because you've lost all hope, Ichigo."

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "What are you talking about?"

With a short, barking laugh, the hollow threw his free hand up in the air to point at a nearby building. "Since you're too dense to figure it out, I suppose I'll explain. You see these tiny, rundown houses? They represent your goals in life and the hope you have in achieving them."

A little startled, Ichigo gazed around the sunken town, each speck of rot and decay on the collapsing buildings suddenly standing out to him as though spotlights shone on them.

"The only dream you have left in the world is the pathetic dream of survival, Ichigo. And even that dream has been almost completely abandoned." The hollow's grin widened. "The events in your future have worn you ragged, and not even the chance at a second try has been able to put you back together. Now there's nothing left but a shell of what you used to be. Whether someone actually kills you or not, you're finished."

Ichigo's head bowed as his hollow jumped up to attack him again. The truth behind the words cut him to the core. He was right; the orange-haired Shinigami had been broken a long time ago.

But that didn't mean he was finished.

When the white Zangetsu swung down, a black one met it halfway, reiatsu pulsing off the blade to shove the other away. The hollow laughed and continued his assault, till it was all Ichigo could do to hold him back. Still, hold him back he did, till the hollow finally backed off, his grin suddenly looking a little less maniacal.

"It's not enough, Ichigo," he cackled with amusement. "You're still only defending!"

"That doesn't matter," Ichigo returned, letting his sword drop to his side. "If I'm going to die out here, I might as well die as _me_. I'm not letting you take over."

The hollow scoffed. "And even completely hopeless, you're as stubborn and stupid as ever. Didn't you hear me? You're finished. I'm taking over whether you want me to or not, unless you start attacking me!"

Ichigo shook his head, his scowl returning. "You forget: a stalemate means I win. I'm still more powerful than you. If you can't get past my defenses, then it doesn't matter how much you yell at me, you're not taking over."

"Oh? Let's just see, then!" A wide grin broke out on the hollow's face again as he raised his white version of Zangetsu. With a laugh, he ran forward and jumped high, hefting his blade over his head to come down hard on Ichigo from above.

With a determined expression, Ichigo raised Zangetsu horizontally to defend, both hands gripping the hilt.

A shower of sparks flew up as the blades clashed, a flash of light that obscured Ichigo's vision for the tiniest fraction of a second.

And when he looked again, Zangetsu was gone, replaced by a thin, simple blade with an undecorated guard. An Asauchi. A training blade from the academy.

"What...?" Ichigo stared at the sword as the hollow's version of Zangetsu—now properly colored black—pushed cracks through its blade. In seconds, he held nothing but a hilt attached to a broken length of metal, the rest sinking through the water slowly till it hit the building below him with a dull clunk.

The hollow, now mere inches from him, laughed softly. "Unfortunately for you, Ichigo," he began in a low voice, "I'm not the only one you've managed to tick off."

At that, he plunged Zangetsu deep into Ichigo's chest, the huge blade protruding out the other side of him. He bled white, the substance growing to cover his clothes.

Bleakly, Ichigo looked up, his gaze landing on a dark figure standing in the distance. "Z-Zangetsu... san...?"

The zanpakutou merely watched him wordlessly, but Ichigo could see the disapproving look in his eyes. Unable to bear that gaze, Ichigo let his head drop again, chin bowed to his chest. Zangetsu believed in progression, in moving forward. "Look forward," he whispered. "Go forward. Never ever stop." He'd failed in that, utterly and completely, by giving up hope. And now it was too late.

A strange, tingling feeling began to spread from his feet upward, and he stared down in disbelief. His body had started to dissolve completely, leaving only wisps of dust that whipped up into the air and disappeared. "What?" the word fell out of his mouth again.

His hollow only grinned at him, a sharp glint in his eyes. "Goodbye, Ichigo. It's my turn, now. Don't worry. I won't let us die."

And the world faded away.

* * *

(Runs off to go hide in Florida on vacation for the next few weeks)


	8. Rescue Gone Wrong

My vacation in Florida was quite nice, thanks for asking. =D

* * *

"Orihime!" The moment Tatsuki spotted her best friend amongst the approaching group, she scrambled to her feet from where she'd been resting, ignoring the dirt she unintentionally kicked up into Mizuiro's face, and took off towards them across the boulder-strewn ground.

The auburn-haired girl's eyes lit up and she waved. "Tatsuki-chan! What are you doing here?"

Tatsuki ignored the question as she came to a stop a few feet from Orihime and her group—Chad and a bunch of black-clad people that were probably Shinigami—and folded her arms. "You left me behind!" she accused, giving her a pointed look.

Orihime stopped dead, face crumpling in guilt. "Tatsuki-chan..."

"And you're about to do it again, aren't you?" Tatsuki scowled at her. "I thought we were best friends, Orihime. Why didn't you tell me anything?"

As she hesitated, Orihime's gaze went to her shoes.

A familiar, short, black-haired girl stepped forward, laying a comforting hand on Orihime's shoulder. "Would you have believed us if we'd said anything, Arisawa-san?"

Tatsuki had to pause for a moment before she fully recognized Kuchiki Rukia dressed up in that strange uniform with such a serious expression on her face, a sword strapped by her side. Then her frown returned. "And you! It's your fault that those Shinigami came and messed with everyone's memories, isn't it?"

She regretted the accusing words as Rukia bowed her head, her voice suddenly soft and hurt. "My apologies for any inconveniences caused. It was indeed my fault."

Tatsuki's anger deflated, and she ran a hand through her short hair. "No, it wasn't. Sorry, Rukia. Sorry, Orihime. I'm just..."

"Frustrated that we haven't gotten strong enough to join you," Mizuiro put in from behind her, finally catching up. "Hi, Sado-san." The tall boy nodded silently to acknowledge his friend.

"How did you find out about everything?" Orihime asked curiously. "We were rescued from hollows by Urahara-san, and that's how we knew. Were you attacked, too?"

Technically, a hollow had attacked them, but... "Well-"

An annoyed scoff came from the back of the group, and a large bald man there turned to the side, looking impatient. "Hate to interrupt your little get-together, but we're in a hurry! We've got people to beat up and a kid to go rescue!" He gave Tatsuki an appraising look. "If these brats ain't strong enough to come with us, then let's go already."

Immediately, Tatsuki's temper flared up again. "Hey, watch who you're calling a brat! I'm not weak, and I _will_ pound you into next Friday!"

A deadly-looking smirk stretched across the bald man's face. "Oh? You wanna try?" He fell into an obvious attack stance, hands reaching down to grab his sword's sheath.

Mizuiro flinched away at the sudden outpour of spirit energy coming off the man, and several of the other members of the group let out protests, but Tatsuki just faced him down with a burning glare, shifting to an attack stance of her own, fists held up at the ready.

The man's grin widened even further and a little voice in the back of Tatsuki's head warned her that this was a full-fledged _God of Death_ she had just challenged. She shushed the voice, steeling herself for the imminent fight.

Before either of them could move, however, Orihime pushed between the fighters, throwing her arms out as though to defend Tatsuki from attack. "Stop! Don't fight!"

Moments later, a tall man with bright red hair stepped forward from the group, laying a hand on the bald man's hilt to keep him from drawing his blade. "She's right, Madarame-san. Stop it. We don't have time for this."

The bald man looked very disappointed as he slowly straightened, tilting his head to crack his neck as he scoffed. "True enough. Hey, who's training you, brat? That Urahara guy?"

Tatsuki nodded tightly, still frowning at him. "Yes."

"You tell him that when I get back, I'm takin' over your training," he announced, his smirk returning.

Tatsuki's mouth opened slightly in surprise, her eyes widening at the prospect. Training by a real Shinigami sounded a lot better than being continually chased around by hollows all day.

The red-head gave him a shocked look. "Oi, what are you talking about?" he demanded. "You can't just-"

The bald man just brushed him off. "I can if I say I can. The girl wants to get stronger, and she's got guts. I'll do it."

"Oho... We'll have to see if you make it back alive before you go making promises like that," a new voice cut into the conversation. Tatsuki refused to let herself jump in surprise as she realized that Urahara stood directly behind her. Instead she slowly turned around to face the smiling, fan-waving man. "Are you all ready? The gate has been prepared."

With another small scoff, the bald man started off toward the place where Urahara had spent the last few hours working on the portal to the world of the hollows. The rest of the group gradually followed.

"Tatsuki-chan..." Orihime turned to her best friend again. "I'm so sorry I couldn't tell you. I know you were friends with Kuchiki-san, and you're friends with Kurosaki-kun, and you want to help too, but..."

Tatsuki waved her off. "I understand," she said, letting out a sigh. "But I still can't believe I'm not strong enough to come with you guys yet. I just don't understand why the training hasn't been working for me."

Orihime nodded, looking a little lost and helpless. "I wish you could come too."

"I know." With another short sigh, Tatsuki stood straight, giving her friend a smile. She had to be strong, for Orihime's sake. "But you'll be fine without me. Go get Ichigo and bring him back home, got it?"

Hesitantly, Orihime smiled back. "Mmhmm! We will, for sure!" Tatsuki could hear in her voice just how unsure she really was of that, but she only nodded, keeping the smile on her face.

Ahead of them, Urahara had somehow gotten up onto one of the giant rocks, where a big wooden beam stuck out. He started chanting something, and as they watched him, the air seemed to rip apart, the tear gouging its way across the room to a second beam level with the first. Inside the gap left behind, bordered by rips that seemed almost like huge, flat teeth, lay a black expanse of nothingness.

"This portal is the one used by Aizen's forces," Urahara called down to the group, looking uncharacteristically serious. "It's called the Garganta. There's no path inside, just a turbulent flow of spirit particles. Make a path from those and use it to move forward. If you head toward the deepest darkness, you will find Hueco Mundo."

"We got it," the bald man yelled back. "Let's go!"

Tatsuki stepped forward. "Wait!"

He glanced back at her, annoyance written plainly on his face.

"Who are you?" She had to at least know the name of the crazed-looking man who would potentially be training her.

The man turned back to the open portal, letting out a quick snort. "Madarame Ikkaku," he answered. With that, he jumped up into the Garganta and took off running, a black-haired man right on his heels. The rest of the Shinigami quickly followed suit.

"Come back soon," Tatsuki couldn't help but say to her best friend as the girl entered the passageway to the world of monsters.

Orihime gave her one last smile. "I will. Thank you, Tatsuki-chan."

The portal closed behind her and Chad, and then disappeared. They were gone.

* * *

Despite the fatigue that threatened to overcome her from having run so far so long, Rukia refused to let herself stop, her eyes fixed on the towering dome of the palace called Las Noches that seemed to loom up ahead of them as they approached.

Everyone else in the group seemed to have the same feeling, because none of them slowed in the least, and no conversation passed between them as they ran.

All of them could sense it: while Ichigo's reiatsu was definitely coming from that palace, something terrible had obviously happened to him.

His reiatsu had been worn ragged, though it raged wildly, feeling so rough and distorted that it hardly felt like his anymore. Even with the distance between them, they could sense that the teen had either been fighting for a really long time, or else... Ichigo's friends had all seen the hollow mask form across his face the last time they'd seen him. None of them wanted to think about that.

_Hang in there, Ichigo_, Rukia tried to send the thought at her distant friend, wincing slightly as his spirit energy flared up once more. It was almost good to know that the flares meant the orange-haired teen was definitely fighting someone. Almost.

Endless hours of running went by before they finally reached Las Noches' hulking outer wall and had to stop while they figured out how to get in. Rukia sank to her knees in the sand to rest while Renji, Chad, Ikkaku, and Yumichika examined the wall. Inoue stood off to one side, obviously trying to keep out of the way, and Hanatarou joined Rukia, flopping down on the ground and breathing so hard it seemed he might hyperventilate.

Rukia gave the boy a brief look of sympathy before focusing on getting her own breathing under control. Part of her still almost wished they'd split up at the start, so that those who knew shunpo could hurry on ahead, but she knew why they hadn't; leaving behind both of their healers would have been a stupid idea. So instead, they'd all had to run hard through Hueco Mundo's endless night.

"It's not made of Seki Seki stone," Renji concluded, drawing his sword. "We can just smash our way through it."

Ikkaku swiftly drew his own sword, turning to the stone wall and slamming the blade down against it with a loud yell. Renji released his blade and, with a "Howl, Zabimaru!" sent it smashing into the rock as well.

Back and forth, the two traded off blows, sending chunks of rock flying as the dent in the wall grew larger and larger.

Eventually, they managed to smash all the way through, and Rukia got to her feet again, ready to move forward. Inoue stopped to help Hanatarou get up as well, but they soon joined the others at the new entrance they'd just created. Inside, any torches in Las Noches's halls had apparently been left unlit, the hallway stretching on into a thick darkness ahead of them.

"Everyone ready?" Renji asked seriously, glancing around at everyone in the group as he leaned Zabimaru across one shoulder.

As if in answer, Ichigo's reiatsu spiked once again, feeling as though someone had streaked it full of a dark presence not his own. Somewhere in the distance, a piercing yell accompanied the spike, causing dread to seep through Rukia's whole body.

"Kurosaki-kun!" his name fell from Inoue's lips with a tone of horror.

Without waiting for any other response, Rukia took off running, dashing through the opening and taking point at the head of the group. The others weren't far behind her.

"What just happened to him?" Hanatarou exclaimed as they ran. "Did you feel that? It was like Ichigo-san was a..."

"Hollow," Inoue choked out, barely able to say it. "Aizen must have done something to him. His reiatsu is..."

Rukia finished for her grimly. "It's getting worse."

Chad let out a low grunt. "Or he was already like this from the beginning, and we're only noticing it more as we're getting closer."

"Which is a lot worse," Renji concluded. "Who knows how long..." He apparently couldn't finish, but he didn't need to. They continued to run in a tense silence down the darkened hallway.

Suddenly, Rukia saw light ahead, and her speed increased as she followed it. Soon, though, the circular room she found herself in, lit on all sides by torches, forced her to a screeching halt. The room had no other way out than where they'd just come from.

Renji growled. "We don't have time to go back. We'll have to bust through the walls again."

Ikkaku glanced around, a scowl planted on his face. "Sure, but which way?"

Yumichika had his eyes closed, hands held up by his ears as though listening for something. "Ichigo-san's reiatsu is coming from that way," he said finally, pointing to their right.

Hanatarou closed his eyes as well. After a moment, he nodded. "Yeah, that's the right direction. And..." His eyes flew open suddenly in alarm. "And he's coming this wa-"

_CRASH!_

Something huge exploded through the wall where Yumichika had pointed, sailing through the air before hitting the far wall with another large crash. The thing let out a scream, layered with the voice of a hollow, and quickly jumped back up to its clawed feet, its attention locked on the hole it had just come through.

Rukia could only stare. The hollow that stood before them had thick, white, muscular arms and legs and a tail, all striped with red. The white and red mask on its face looked horribly familiar, but the main thing that caught her attention was the bright orange hair that cascaded down to his waist.

Ichigo's reiatsu came from within the monster.

None of them could react, merely watching with horror as the hollow stalked back toward the gap in the wall, growling in a high-pitched snarl to itself, gripping Ichigo's zanpakutou tightly in its claws.

Deep laughter drew their attention, and they all finally noticed the slightly bloodied, blue-haired hollow standing in the rubble of the broken-down wall. He looked strangely like a cross between a humanoid and a feline, and he gave them a calculating look before grinning. "Well, well, what do we got here? An invasion party?"

Ichigo didn't give anyone a chance to respond, as he leapt toward the other hollow with a scream of rage, swinging Zangetsu hard and fast at his head. The blue-haired hollow quickly defended, twisting around and batting the zanpakutou away with a bladed arm.

They exchanged several blows, almost too fast for Rukia to follow, and then the two combatants backed off again, Ichigo snarling at the other hollow in contempt.

Suddenly, the group broke from their paralysis, everyone leaping forward into action. Renji and Chad went to Ichigo's side, grabbing either arm and trying to hold him down. Inoue put up a glowing yellow shield between the two hollows, and the rest of them took up positions behind the shield, some facing Ichigo and some turning to keep the other hollow back from the shield.

Ichigo raged, yelling in defiance and trying to yank himself free of his friends' holds. Strong as they were, they couldn't quite restrain him, and he tossed them to and fro, leaving them barely able to hang on. Twice, Ichigo nearly managed to swing them off, but each time, they regained their grips barely in time.

"What do you think you're doing?" the blue-haired hollow laughed at them, still grinning. "You think you can save him or something? Can't you see? It's too late for him!"

"Shut up!" Rukia demanded, keeping her sword drawn and her eyes on Ichigo as he roared in frustration, a cero charging on the tips of his fingers. Inoue swiftly moved her shield around and it took the brunt of the cero, shattering on impact.

Ikkaku glanced back at Ichigo as well. "He's right. Hate to say it, but we'll just have to kill him."

"No!" Inoue's eyes went wide as she whirled on Ikkaku in a sudden panic. "We can't!"

Renji nodded. "Let's take him back to Urahara-san," he grunted, still struggling to keep his hold on Ichigo's arm. "Maybe he'll know how to help hiiiiiaaaah!" his sentence turned into a yell as Ichigo finally managed to bat him off, sending him flying into a wall. Immediately, the red-striped hollow whirled on him again, starting to charge up another cero.

The blue-haired hollow jumped back into the fray at that, sending a kick at Ichigo's head that caused the cero to spiral off to the side. "What a bunch of naïve Shinigami," he snarled at them as Ichigo sent a return blow at his head with his free arm. "This is my fight! Get outta my way!"

"Never!" Inoue returned boldly, turning back to him with a determined expression on her face. "He's our friend! Leave him alone!"

The blue-haired hollow started to respond, but was interrupted as Ichigo screamed again, coming to a halt and stiffening up. Large, bloody gashes suddenly opened up in his shoulders of their own accord, and Chad dropped the arm he still clung to in surprise, wincing at the harsh, pained sounds coming from behind that toothy mask.

Then, the skin where he had held abruptly shattered, as though a shell had covered Ichigo's body and was now breaking away. All over his body, the same cracks appeared, and the hollow shell fell away, fading away into nothing as it hit the ground.

Underneath, Ichigo stood, looking completely normal save for the full hollow mask on his face and a large hole that remained opened in his chest. He took a deep breath, his eyes still closed, and then gradually let it out.

"Kurosaki-kun?" Inoue's voice wavered slightly.

His eyes snapped open, revealing black sclera and bright yellow irises. Hollow eyes. Slowly, his head lifted as he focused on them. "You guys? So someone finally came after Ichigo after all!" High-pitched laughter fell from his lips as he flared his reiatsu again, as though stretching it out after a long period of not being used.

Rukia took a step back in alarm. This wasn't Ichigo. The eyes, the dual-toned voice, the hollow hole and that creepy smile flashed like warning bells in her mind, but one thing clinched it: his reiatsu still felt as though it were mostly hollow, with mere streaks of Shinigami running through it.

"It's not him," she warned the others tightly. "This is his inner hollow, the one who took over at Soukyoku hill."

Ichigo's hollow laughed again, reaching up and pulling the mask up off of his face, sliding it up to rest on the top of his head. "Very perceptive, Rukia-chan!"

"I-I don't understand," Hanatarou stammered out, his eyes flicking back and forth between Ichigo's hollow hole and his dangerous-looking eyes. "What happened to you, Ichigo-san?"

"Ichigo isn't here anymore!" the hollow yelled, still grinning. "You lot missed your chance! That miserable jerk you called your friend is gone! Now you get to play with me!"

They could only stand stunned for a split second, before Ikkaku recovered, flipping his sword off to the side and slamming the end of the hilt together with the sheath. "Alright. Guess we have no choice, then. Extend, Houzukimaru!"

Inoue cried out in protest as the bald man released his blade and immediately leapt toward Ichigo's hollow with his spear held high above his head.

"No, don't!" she screamed, her hands flying up to her hairpins to send her shield in their direction.

The hollow didn't even flinch at the abrupt attack, simply bringing Zangetsu up to defend, batting the spear away and, twisting around Inoue's shield, retaliating with his own blow.

Ikkaku ducked under the blade, sending another jab up and over the hollow's shoulder. The tri-sectional spear separated into its part, curving around to land a hit from behind.

And suddenly the other hollow—the blue-haired one—jumped into the fray again, slamming an elbow deep into Ikkaku's side and sending him flying. With a yell, the Shinigami smashed through the wall shoulder first.

"Oi! Don't go forgetting _our_ battle!"

Ichigo's hollow laughed, readying his blade in anticipation. "Of course not, Grimmjow. But first, I should deal with our visitors so that they'll quit interfering."

The other hollow seemed to hear something dangerous in his tone, and a predatory grin appeared on his face. "What did you have in mind?"

"Madarame-san, wait! You're injured! Don't-!" Hanatarou's voice drew their attention back to Ikkaku as he gave a battle cry, running back toward the two hollows, fully willing to take on both of them at once.

Surprisingly, Ichigo's hollow didn't dodge, instead actually stepping forward to meet the blow. Flicking his wrist swiftly in the air, he opened a Garganta in front of himself—a Garganta that Ikkaku suddenly had too much momentum to avoid running straight into.

The moment the Shinigami passed through the portal, it disappeared, leaving Ichigo's hollow with a satisfied smirk on his face. "Well, that worked better than I thought it would!"

Before anyone could react, he turned sharply toward the next closest group of invaders—Hanatarou, Yumichika, and Chad. In a moment, he'd dropped almost to the ground, flicking his wrist in their direction as he fell into a low crouch.

Immediately, another Garganta appeared, this time spreading its way across the floor, and though the three tried to scramble out of the way, it caught them within its maw. Each of them fell with a yell, and the portal closed up behind them.

"No!" Rukia ran forward, breaking away from the remaining members of her group and heading straight at Ichigo's hollow, blade raised to attack. He merely dodged her thrust, and then flash stepped—sonido!—to move directly behind her, slashing at her back with Zangetsu. She stumbled, and then fell.

"Two more to go!" Ichigo's hollow cackled, facing them as he brought his zanpakutou up just in time to catch an overhead swing from Renji. The two exchanged several blows, and then the hollow shoved hard against Renji's blade, sending him skidding backwards.

Unfortunately, this sent him tumbling straight into Inoue, and before they knew it, the two of them were falling into a third Garganta portal.

"What? Why don't you just kill them?" the blue-haired hollow demanded, sounding almost offended. "Look, even the girl's getting up again. You purposefully didn't hit her hard enough to do more than knock her over!"

Rukia had nearly gotten to her feet by that point, and she slowly raised Sode no Shirayuki into a defensive position, facing Ichigo's hollow again.

The orange-haired hollow merely snickered at her efforts, obviously seeing that the wound had gone deep enough to keep her from moving efficiently, despite what the other hollow had to say about it. He sheathed Zangetsu with a flourish, swinging the large blade up onto his back, and then walked calmly towards her.

Still wary, Rukia held her position, breathing hard as the hollow approached.

"You never know when a previous ally might prove useful, Grimmjow," said the thing that wasn't Ichigo anymore with a grin on his face, moving to stand directly in front of her. He leaned forward to bring himself closer to her eye level. "Now, Rukia-chan... I have a message for you."

Rukia tried to keep her eyes from widening at their proximity, ignoring every screaming instinct that tried to tell her that this person was not an enemy, that he wouldn't ever do anything to hurt her. "What message?" she asked tightly.

"Keep out of my way." His grin grew even deeper, the distorted expression sending chills down her spine. "My loyalties lie with Aizen-san now. I wouldn't want you to be killed, now would I?"

With that, he brought one hand up, laying it firmly on her upper chest, and gave a quick shove. As she toppled backward, she realized with horror that he'd created yet another Garganta portal behind her.

She fell into darkness.

* * *

Screams ripped through the air as desks scattered across the almost empty classroom of Karakura high. Ishida jumped at the noise, closing his book as he quickly looked around.

"What was that?" Chizuru yelled, staring in horror at the mess.

"I don't know! What happened?"

Ishida narrowed his eyes at the sight in the corner of the room: Ikkaku lay sprawled across a pile of desks where he'd apparently landed after having suddenly appeared out of thin air. The Shinigami groaned slightly, shifting the desks as he tried to get to his feet.

Kon sprang up from his seat near the window. "You!" he cried. "You were part of the rescue team! What happened? Where's Ichigo? Did you find him yet?"

Ishida cleared his throat rather loudly. "Kurosaki-san," he called in an overly formal fashion, attracting the attentions of Kon and the rest of the students. "Are you feeling quite well?"

The mod-soul froze, as though suddenly realizing that he stood in the middle of class in Kurosaki Ichigo's body, and that the other students in the class were staring at him.

_Honestly_, Ishida thought, rolling his eyes slightly. _It's a good thing it's lunch time and most of the students are out of the room._

"Uh... um..." Kon stared back, not sure what to say. "Uh, yeah! Yeah, feeling just fine!" He turned to Ikkaku. "How about you? I mean you did just come flying into a bunch of-"

By this point, Ishida had reached Kon's side, and he clapped a hand on the mod-soul's shoulder. "Kurosaki," he repeated tightly. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

For a moment, Kon merely stared at Ishida, probably wondering what he had done wrong. Then, it apparently hit him that only he and the Quincy could actually see the Shinigami in the room, and a look of horror appeared on his face.

"Ah... well..."

Ishida couldn't help but to roll his eyes again and, giving Ikkaku a piercing look, he quickly steered Kon toward the door. "Come on, I'm taking you to the nurse. You obviously got hit in the head when that mysterious gust of wind blew all those desks over."

Kon slumped, but allowed Ishida to lead him away. "Yeah, I guess so," he allowed, even though he'd been all the way across the room from where Ikkaku had landed.

Once the two of them had escaped to the safety of the hallway, they both turned questioningly to Ikkaku, who had thankfully taken the hint and followed them out. "Well, Madarame-san?" Ishida asked tightly. "What happened on the mission? Where is Kurosaki?"

Ikkaku merely scowled. "He's beyond our ability to save."

Kon gulped. "You mean he's... dead?"

"Unfortunately, no."

Kon stared at the Shinigami. "What do you mean, unfortunately? Isn't that a good thing?"

Ishida, however, had already figured out what Ikkaku meant. "There are some things worse than death," he said softly, remembering the mask appearing on Kurosaki's face back on Soukyoku hill. "So, he became a hollow?"

Kon's jaw dropped as Ikkaku nodded. "He might as well be dead; we just haven't killed him yet. I tried to take him out, and he dropped me here. I don't know what happened to the others."

"We're here," a new voice broke in suddenly. Ishida turned to see Yumichika, Hanatarou, and Chad walking down the hallway towards them. Yumichika rubbed his head as though he had a headache, but everyone else seemed to be unharmed. "We think that he's sending everyone back here in the same way."

Hanatarou nodded to confirm this. "We ended up on the roof. And before we headed down here, we saw Abarai-san and Inoue-san appear down on the track field. We're not sure where Kuchiki-san is yet."

Ikkaku let out a sigh. "Suppose we should look for her, then. We need to regroup; figure out what we're gunna do next."

"I'll take my leave, then." Ishida took a short step away from the group before turning and beginning to walk off.

Kon gave him a puzzled look. "Oi, where you going?"

"Back to class, obviously," Ishida lied, heading a different direction down the hall. He didn't even bother to look back at them. "I got the information I wanted. None of this concerns me."

"But Ishida-san..." Hanatarou looked concerned.

Ikkaku snorted. "Eh, let him go. If he doesn't want to help, he doesn't want to help."

_I can't help_, Ishida wanted to retort, but he held back and simply kept walking, not even really paying attention to where he was going. _Though more and more, I wish I could._

He shook his head. Even if he had his powers back, he would be of no help in this situation. Kurosaki had become a hollow, and the only way a Quincy could fight a hollow was to completely eliminate them. No, the best thing would be to let the Shinigami take care of it.

A scowl appeared on his face at that thought. _Did I really just think that?_ he scoffed at himself. It was as though Kurosaki had somehow become his _friend_ or something. _Honestly_, he tried to convince himself, _It's not like I actually _care_ about what happened to—_

A dry sob caught his attention suddenly, and he stopped, glancing around. The sound had come from a nearby, darkened classroom. Out of curiosity, he peeked inside.

All the lights remained off at his quiet entry, and so he barely saw the huddled form leaned up against the far wall of the room. Kuchiki's eyes looked dark and hopeless as she hugged her knees, and though no tears streaked her cheeks, her whole body shook.

"Not you too, Ichigo..." she whispered to herself. "Not like Kaien-dono... How could this happen to you?"

Ishida looked away, somewhat embarrassed to have intruded on such a moment. Even with all he'd seen Kuchiki go through, he'd never seen her look so... broken before.

Kuchiki somehow spotted his movement, despite his efforts to be discreet, and looked up.

Abruptly, her entire form seemed to change as she stiffened, her eyes gaining a sharp look like steel. She forced herself slowly to her feet, and Ishida finally noticed the bleeding slash running across her back.

"Ishida-san... where are the others?" Kuchiki's voice had hardened back to that of a warrior, showing none of the weakness she had just a second before.

Without commenting on what he'd seen, Ishida pointed back down the hallway the way he'd come. "Everyone is regrouping down the hall over there. I believe they are looking for you."

After a second, she nodded, starting to stumble out of the room. When he saw her difficulties, Ishida hurried to her side, gingerly helping her to walk.

For a long moment, neither of them said anything as they made their way down the hallway. Finally, though, Ishida felt he had to say something. "I'm... sorry for your loss," he told her softly.

A strange expression crossed her face before vanishing into the hardened mask she'd created for herself. She didn't respond to his condolences. Maybe she felt she couldn't.

* * *

"Welcome back, Hollow-san," Aizen greeted as the hollow entered the throne room. "I admit to being impressed by your promptness. I didn't expect to see you here for another few days."

The hollow grinned at him, raising both hands in the air in a large shrug. "What can I say?" he laughed cruelly. "I overestimated him."

A smile appeared on the other man's face. "Apparently so." He was about to say something further, but Grimmjow suddenly interrupted, shoving forward past the hollow and snarling at the ex-Shinigami captain.

"Why did you stop our battle _again_?" he demanded impatiently. "I swear, if you send Ulquiorra to come 'fetch' us while we're in the middle of fighting again, I'll-"

"I apologize, Grimmjow," Aizen cut back in smoothly, tilting his head in acknowledgement of his words. "But I'm afraid that what I have to say at this moment is far more important than a spar."

Grimmjow growled, but the threatening aura of spirit energy suddenly coming off of Aizen kept him from doing much more than that.

After a moment's pause, Aizen continued, addressing the hollow again. "I thought that now would be a good time to introduce you to your new comrades, Hollow-san." His smile broadened. "Especially as you will have to defeat one of them if you wish to gain an Espada position."

"I see." The hollow smirked. That was Aizen's way of telling him that he now had permission to kill someone if he wanted to.

He glanced around the room calmly, his grin still in place. He'd noticed the shadows along the edges of the room before, and knew that he wasn't alone in here, but now he studied them all carefully, trying to gauge strengths.

Thankfully, he didn't have to rely fully on what he could see; Ichigo's descriptions of the Espada he'd known came in handy here. In particular, the memories his other self had accidentally shared about getting the crap beaten out of him by anyone over Grimmjow's level.

"Oi, which one of you is number seven?"

"Seven?" Grimmjow practically roared at him. "Oh, no you don't! You're fighting _me_!"

Even Aizen seemed slightly surprised at his choice, but gestured for one of the Espada to step forward. Number seven was a tall, broad, bald-headed, dark-skinned man with an almost skin-tight white uniform.

Grimmjow leapt suddenly at the hollow with a yell of anger, drawing his sword midair. The hollow ducked under it, and Grimmjow's blade merely rebounded off of his sheathed zanpakutou on his back. The blue-haired Arrancar went for another blow, but the hollow used sonido to step away, laughing loudly.

"Cool it, Grimmjow!" he called playfully. "You'll get your turn. I don't want to lose my best sparring partner so quickly." Grimmjow didn't look appeased in the slightest, so the hollow added, "Besides, that guy's so ugly, he kind of needs to get taken down."

The seventh Espada's expression turned dangerously cold. "In challenging me, Zommari Leroux," he announced, reaching to draw his sword, "you have signed a death wish."

"Yeah," the hollow agreed amiably, cackling to himself. "Yours!"

Without waiting for a response, he ran at number seven, unsheathing Zangetsu and swinging hard in a high, overhand blow. Strangely, Zommari didn't bother to block with his sword, merely standing there as he attacked. It was as though...

It was an illusion. The hollow realized this just as his sword swished through thin air instead of connecting. Immediately, he turned to block not one, but two strikes from behind him, both from what looked like two duplicates of the same Arrancar.

"My sonido is the fastest amongst all the Espada," one of the two Zommari's explained as the other disappeared, his focused look never changing even as his tone turned to an arrogant brag. "I can even move fast enough to create up to three phantom forms of myself."

The hollow considered this for half a second before his wide grin reappeared on his face. "Oh, really? Only three? Big deal." He snickered, bringing Zangetsu up parallel to the ground, letting the hilt wrap twist around his upper arm as he'd seen Ichigo do so many times. He could move _much_ faster than that while in bankai.

Before he could do anything, though, a large shape loomed next to him, and he dodged, whirling around to face Grimmjow as the Arrancar attacked him again with a fierce yell. He raised Zangetsu to defend.

Sparks flew, but not from the hollow's blade; Ulquiorra had suddenly stepped in between them, blocking Grimmjow's attack with one raised hand.

"This is an official Espada battle," Ulquiorra informed the other Arrancar tonelessly. "You will not interfere."

"That's _my_ opponent!" Grimmjow snarled.

The hollow's grin widened. "So possessive... I told you, Grimmjow. You'll get your turn. Now, chill."

For a moment, the hollow thought that Grimmjow would go straight through Ulquiorra to get to him, but finally, the blue-haired Arrancar wisely backed down, letting out another loud growl.

With a jerk of his head toward the door, he gestured to his fraccion, who watched from the shadows, and then turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, still fuming to himself. His fraccion all looked as though they wanted to stay to watch the battle, but reluctantly, they followed their leader.

Ulquiorra retreated back to his spot amongst the gathered Espada, and the hollow returned his attention to Zommari, raising Zangetsu back up parallel to the ground again as he snickered. "Now, from where we left off... Bankai!"

Smoke and dust whipped up around him as his form began to change, the hilt wrap seeming to twist tighter and tighter around his arm, then up and across the rest of his body. Zangetsu's weight shifted in his hands as it also changed shape.

The hollow slashed his zanpakutou's new bankai form forward, clearing the air before him. Just before he could move to attack, though, he caught a glimpse of his arm.

He stopped, staring down at himself.

White. White, thick muscular arms, white torso, even white hakama around his waist, though his skin lay bare from the waist up. Behind him, he could feel long hair swishing against his back as he moved. In his hands, even Zangetsu's usual bankai form had become as white as the bone mask he could feel covering just the left side of his face.

"_What is this?_" he couldn't help but ask Zangetsu as he turned around and noticed that he'd also gained a long, whipping tail.

The zanpakutou answered, sounding almost smug. "_I've told you before that you can't release Bankai. This is the true form of hollow and zanpakutou: Ressureccion._"

He didn't even need to ask to know that it held all the same powers as Ichigo's bankai, and more. The hollow grinned up at Zommari, the thrill of exhilaration running through him. "Alright! Wasn't expecting that, but I can work with it! Let's go!"

The seventh Espada took much longer to recover from the shock of this new transformation than the hollow did, and when the hollow leapt at him again, Zangetsu swinging, he barely got out of the way in time, leaving behind only a very faint afterimage.

The hollow didn't slow, running around Zommari in a tight circle and attacking again and again from every angle he could. To the Espada, he knew, he would appear as hundreds of versions of himself all coming at him at once.

Surprisingly, Zommari kept up fairly decently with the attacks, blocking almost all of them and even countering with a few blows of his own. Apparently, once he quit purposefully focusing his speed into making illusionary clones of himself, he could use it quite well for normal things.

A sharp pain in a strange place told him that his tail had suddenly been severed from the rest of him, and he let out a frustrated snarl. He wasn't used to having an extra appendage there, so he'd forgotten to pay attention to it while dodging attacks.

The hollow stopped his circling, backing off for a moment to inspect the damage. Much as it annoyed him, he _needed_ that tail; it had been helping him keep his balance, strangely enough, and now he wobbled slightly on his feet.

A stream of white burst forth from the bleeding stump where his tail had been, condensing quickly into a vague tail shape for a moment before solidifying. Within moments, his tail had reformed itself.

The hollow grinned, turning back to Zommari and preparing to attack again. The Arrancar looked taken aback. "High speed regeneration?" he wondered aloud.

"Sweet!" the hollow cackled, jumping at his opponent with a wide swing of his sword. "As if I wasn't going to have an easy enough time kicking your butt! Not only am I much faster than you, but I've got other tricks up my sleeve too!"

Zommari blocked his blow, and the next three, before pushing off of the hollow's blade, shoving him away to put distance between them. "You say that as though I don't also have other abilities."

With that, he took a bracing stance, holding his zanpakutou up parallel to the ground. Letting go of the hilt, he clapped his hands together as his sword levitated in front of him. Then, his head began to turn sideways until it, too, was parallel to the ground in a disturbing fashion.

"Suppress, Brujeria." Suddenly, his zanpakutou bent, twisting itself into a strange spiral shape. A white substance—very much like the hollow's regeneration ability—erupted from the zanpakutou and covered Zommari's entire body.

As the hollow watched, the stuff dripped off, slowly revealing Zommari's new Ressureccion form: a giant, floating pink pumpkin covered with closed eyes, with the top half of his body sticking out the top like a giant stem.

The hollow couldn't help but to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of the whole thing. Without waiting for any explanation of the Arrancar's abilities, he attacked again, using the full extent of his speed to get in as close as he could with the intent of stabbing right through that giant balloon of a body.

Right at the last moment, though, one of the eyes on the balloon abruptly opened up, and the hollow's wrist twisted involuntarily, turning his blade so that only the flat side connected, bouncing off harmlessly.

Somewhat confused, the hollow tried again to bring his zanpakutou up to attack, but this time his entire right arm refused to move and the sword remained where it was by his side. The eye that had opened on the side of the giant pink mass had started glowing purple.

Immediately, the hollow backed off with a quick sonido, realizing that something had gone very wrong.

"I see that you finally noticed the effect of my Amor." The seventh Espada sounded distinctly smug as he spoke, turning to face him. "Each of my eyes has the ability to steal the sovereignty of one thing it can see. In other words, taking control of it away."

The hollow frowned down at his arm for a moment, noting the sun-shaped mark that had appeared on the back of it. In the next second, it had lifted by itself, shifting the zanpakutou around in his hand so that the sharp side faced in toward himself.

Before it could move further, the hollow snatched his zanpakutou up out of his right hand's loose grip and into his left. The right hand continued upward, reaching as though to try to strangle him.

"Che." With a smirk, the hollow cut off his arm, just above the sun mark.

Pain flowered through him for an instant before his high-speed regeneration kicked in again, forming a new arm before the old one had even hit the ground. The old arm twitched, still in Zommari's control, but unable to do anything.

The hollow grinned at Zommari. "Fascinating. Unfortunately for you, I could do this all day!" He leapt at the seventh Espada again, going in for another attack.

Again, another eye opened, but even as it turned purple, the hollow noticed his left leg leaving his control and he slashed it off, then he continued his swing. Zommari's main eyes opened wide in surprise, and he sonido'd out of the way just barely in time.

By then, yet another eye had opened, and then another. The hollow twisted around, making sure that his sword arm remained out of sight of Zommari's eyes so that he could still use that one to cut off any limbs that the Espada removed from his control. He moved in to attack with full speed, again and again, barely even pausing to sever his own limbs before moving at him again.

Several times, he managed to get in a blow on one of the closed eyes, effectively blinding them, but for the most part, Zommari dodged, his scheme of taking control of limbs slowing the hollow down just enough for him to get out of the way.

The hollow didn't care; he just kept attacking, dropping dead limbs like leaves as the battle went on. He could feel his reiatsu getting lower and lower as he used more energy on high-speed regeneration, but for now, he still had plenty.

And more importantly, more and more of Zommari's eyes were now stuck glowing purple, focused on arms and legs that he could no longer even move. All too soon, he only had a handful of uninjured, unopened eyes left, and the Espada finally realized what the hollow had been doing to him.

Immediately, he stopped opening new eyes, a scowl appearing across his normally stoic face. "A clever tactic," he allowed, sounding mildly frustrated.

"I thought so," the hollow quipped, grinning at him as he came to a stop.

"But not good enough!" Several of the remaining eyes opened up, and the hollow just laughed, turning again to the side so that he wouldn't have to wrestle his sword out of his right hand before cutting it off.

Suddenly, though, everything froze. His arms wouldn't move, his legs stopped responding, even his tail ceased its whipping around.

Then, slowly, Zommari gestured with his hands, using a 'come hither' motion, and the hollow's body turned back to face him, the movement completely against his will. His right arm raised Zangetsu up, turning it around to point the blade at his own chest, just above his hollow hole.

The hollow couldn't do anything about it. Zommari had somehow managed to take over everything! But how...?

"My eyes steal the sovereignty of whatever they see," Zommari explained once again, his voice solemn now. "I can capture control of an arm, a leg... but if the eye opens upon a person's head, I gain complete control of that person. Your body is now mine."

"_No!_" the hollow let out a mental scream. He'd had way too much of _this_ already. He wasn't about to just take this lying down.

With another yell that managed to break out into reality, the hollow forced his reiatsu to surge, pouring it into all of his limbs, trying to force control back. Zommari looked taken aback as the hollow's entire body glowed red.

Quickly, the seventh Espada gestured again, and the hollow's arm began to lower, starting to stab Zangetsu straight into his chest. However, the hollow struggled even harder, and the arm stopped moving.

"That's... impossible!" Zommari exclaimed. "The sovereignty of your body should belong to me!"

The hollow let out a short laugh, forcing his head up to grin tightly up at him. "Sorry," he cackled. "I've worked too hard to gain 'sovereignty' of this body to give it up now."

With that, he gave one last powerful shove on his reiatsu, and suddenly the one glowing purple eye that had focused on the hollow's head exploded. Zommari's control broke completely, the resulting shock wave throwing the Espada backwards, almost running him into a group of onlookers.

"Now," the hollow said darkly, his grin growing wider. He shifted quickly to an attack position, yanking the tip of Zangetsu out of his chest and pointing it back at Zommari, who was still reeling at the loss of his eye and his control. "I'm going to make sure you never get the chance to try that ever again."

Before Zommari could move a muscle, the hollow was on him, swinging Zangetsu in a wide arc.

The Espada's head rolled across the ground. The rest of him soon followed, falling from the air and landing with a resounding crash.

As soon as the body began to dissolve, the hollow smirked, laying Zangetsu triumphantly across his shoulder. For a long moment, there was silence.

Finally, Aizen began to clap slowly. "Very good," he said smoothly, looking rather proud of the way the battle had turned out. "Welcome to the Espada, number seven."

* * *

And thus, Ichigo's hollow _finally_ becomes an Espada. Took me long enough to finally get to this point. I've only been planning it for forever...

Well, I'm going to admit: Ikkaku surprised me at the beginning of this chapter by taking over Tatsuki's training. o.O It'll work well, but still, he just sort of announced it without warning me, there...

Oh. About the hollow's Ressureccion form. I have a theory which is, whenever Ichigo releases bankai, he gets his normal bankai form. The hollow can _use_ that form by taking control of Ichigo while it's released, but he can't actually release that form himself. Instead, when he releases, he goes to Ressureccion, which Ichigo could (theoretically) use by taking control while it's released (if he weren't, y'know, dead).

My theory stems from the fact that it wasn't until Ichigo and his hollow both yelled "Bankai!" during their inner battle (in canon) that Ichigo's body actually gained a hollow hole and started transforming into the lizard/salamander hollow form. Thus, Ichigo's hollow's Ressureccion form is basically that form.

My theory also goes on to say that if one of them releases bankai or ressurecion, and the other then releases _their_ form on top of that, then they'll get the uber release, which is Ichigo's second hollow form; the one with the horns. (That's actually approximately what happened in Feeling Hollow, except I just didn't really state it like that. Both of them pushing together results in uber hollow form.) Obviously, that form isn't going to make an appearance in Day Before Tomorrow unless Ichigo revives and gets his act together.

And thus is my complicated theory.

Oh, by the way. I just got a review informing me that Day Before Tomorrow has been added to tvtropes' fanfiction recommendation page! Yay! That makes me so excited!

Thanks again to all of my wonderful readers, and to all of you who leave reviews, favorites, or otherwise enjoy and share this story. You guys really make my days brighter.

-Daricio


	9. Inspiring Hope

I really hate it when I take a really long time to write something. One of the main reasons I write is so I can read the finished product, since "I wish there was a story like that" is usually the first inspiration for fanfiction I get. Whenever I take a really long time to write something, it means that I deprive everyone of the story, including myself.

So it especially sucks when I try to figure out when I updated last, only to find that it's been over a year. About a year and five months, to be exact. Yeesh. I'm really sorry, guys.

I really have been writing all this time, off and on. There have been a lot of changes in my life, including getting three new jobs (only two of which I still have, as one was seasonal) (and I still don't make enough money to pay all my bills) and continuing to try new ways of dealing with my medical problems. But mostly, I just write very slowly.

Also, the latest Bleach manga has been very disappointing lately. Sorry if you don't like spoilers, but I really hate the new Quincy bad guy. And not just hate him as a person, but hate him as a character. He seems really shallow and blah. And I don't care for several other things about the new manga too, but I won't spend time ranting about it here. At least this new arc with Isshin's backstory is somewhat interesting, but even it is mostly just leaving me with more questions than it's answering.

The point is, it seems like lately (especially with the anime going on hiatus) there just isn't much good Bleach stuff around. The fandom seems to be kind of winding down, which makes me a bit sad.

So I've actually been doing more and more writing on my original novel, or writing random pointless scenes from stories that I never did anything with. But I've also been working on this, because I like the story and really hope to finish it someday.

It's been long enough, though, that I think I need at least a bit of a summary here again before we start:

* * *

Aizen destroyed the world. Ichigo was sent back in time by Urahara. He tried to rescue Rukia early, only to wind up making everything worse and getting himself kidnapped by Aizen. Several boring chapters were then spent watching Ichigo mope around Hueco Mundo because he couldn't get away without getting himself killed. Meanwhile, Rukia and others planned a rescue mission and Tatsuki and others started training with Urahara to try to gain powers of their own so they could come with. Kon was mentioned at one point, but who knows where the poor guy is now.

During that time, Ichigo started trying to work with his hollow, but it didn't work because he refused to trust his hollow and he was slowly losing hope. Eventually the hollow got fed up with him, put a sword through him and took over. Which is about when Rukia's rescue group showed up. Ichigo's hollow kicked them back to the living world to get them out of his way, and then took out Zomarri to become Espada number seven.

I believe that about catches us all up. Now, on to the story.

* * *

Tatsuki ducked around the blade coming straight at her face, her footwork precise as she dodged and came around for a blow of her own, gripping the hilt of her sword tightly. The angle of her attack was wrong, though, and her opponent merely brushed her sword aside with his bare hand, lunging toward her with another swipe.

Instinctively, she let go of the hilt of her sword with one hand and jabbed upward at his ribcage. She regretted the move instantly when he blurred out of her sight and something impacted her side, hard. The next thing she knew, she'd slid a good three meters across the hard-packed dirt and rocks on her back, and flashes of pain obscured her view of the fake, painted sky above her.

"I told ya not to let go of that sword!" the voice of her new "instructor" snapped at her from beyond her range of vision. "Both hands stay on that hilt! No more of this trying to use karate in the middle of a sword fight!"

Pushing herself back up to a standing position, Tatsuki shot him a glare, grumbling to herself as she stumbled slightly. "Karate is what I'm _used_ to. It's what I'm _good_ at."

Somehow, Ikkaku heard her anyway. "And that's exactly why I'm taking it away from you. How do you expect to get new powers if you're able to simply keep relying on what you've already got? Now, don't make me tie your hands to the hilt."

Tatsuki frowned at him. "So you're making me learn to use a sword instead. But what use is that? Then I'll just keep relying on the sword skills I have, and I still won't get new powers."

"That's why I ain't teaching you how to use a sword." A wicked grin spread across his face. "I ain't teaching you nothin'. I'm just attacking. If you don't dodge, I'll kill ya, and that's all there is to it."

Tatsuki could hear the ice-cold edge in his voice as he stated that, and she realized grimly that he wasn't kidding. A certain amount of fear crept in on her, but she pushed it away, trying to find a good grip on her sword's hilt again while keeping her eyes on his face.

Apparently, she took too long doing this, because Ikkaku suddenly stood by her side, scowling down at her arms with a look of distaste. "And what, exactly, are those?" She would not let herself flinch at his speed.

Glancing down for only the split second required to determine what he meant, Tatsuki met his gaze calmly. "They're called sweatbands," she said dryly. "I always wear them when I fight. They help-"

"You know what I call them?" he interrupted her harshly. "I call them 'handholds'."

Just like that, he'd slipped his fingers underneath the one on her right hand, turning and using his brute strength to toss her sideways. Tatsuki barely retained her footing in time to avoid a tumble, both feet sliding across the ground several inches.

Quickly regaining her composure, Tatsuki glared. "_These_ are handholds?! Then what do you call _that_?" She pointed blatantly at Ikkaku's companion, Yumichika, who stood on the top of a boulder a ways back, examining his fingernails.

The black-haired Shinigami seemed to sense her finger aimed in his direction, because he glanced up at her, the feathers attached to his eyebrow and eyelashes bobbing up and down as he moved. His entire outfit looked ridiculous, but in particular, the thing that had her attention now was a thick, woven cord that clipped onto the bottom of his orange, turtleneck, scarf-like collar and stretched down to attach to a knitted, disconnected sleeve of the same material on his right hand.

He apparently knew what she was talking about, because he scoffed at her, flipping his long hair backward with the hand that had the orange sleeve as though to show it off. "This," he informed her airily, "is beautifully fashionable."

"That," Tatsuki informed him back, "is a giant handhold. So don't even try telling me I can't wear my sweatbands. I won my first big fight while wearing these; they mean a lot to me, and unlike that giant orange thing, they're actually useful for something."

The man's face scrunched up slightly, his eyes narrowing. "Are you implying that my beauty is useless?"

Ikkaku smirked. "Uh oh, you insulted the outfit. Better run."

Tatsuki wasn't at all afraid of the rather feminine-looking man. "Why is she even hanging around watching us, anyway? She your girlfriend or something?"

Ikkaku merely let out a laugh. Yumichika's fingers clenched, both hands rising up slowly into the air as his entire expression twisted into horrified rage. He looked as though he were about to try to strangle her—or possibly himself. "You... you... you... dare?!"

"I DID IT GUYS!"

Tatsuki turned as Keigo came suddenly dashing across the training grounds towards her, a huge grin plastered across his face and his arms waving wildly. The black cat, Yoruichi, followed after him at a more languid pace, looking somewhat amused.

Deliberately facing away from the still-seething Yumichika, just to annoy him further, Tatsuki raised an eyebrow at Ichigo's over-enthusiastic friend as she planted her sword tip-first a few inches into the ground so that she wouldn't have to hang onto it for the moment. "Did what?" she asked him.

Coming to a dead stop, Keigo threw both arms up in front of him as though he were about to fire off some sort of hadoken blast, an overly proud expression on his face as a wordless yell tore itself from his lips. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then...

PIFF! A crack rang through the air along with a burst of bright light, which faded away quickly.

"See!" Keigo cheered for himself with a squeal of happiness, doing a little jig in place. "I can do it at will, now! Now tell me, am I awesome, or am I awesome?!"

Tatsuki blinked, ignoring his antics for now as she glanced around, trying to figure out exactly what damage Keigo's attack had done. Her eyes narrowed in confusion as she noted that absolutely nothing had changed. Not the rocks around her, not any of the people, and not even Keigo himself.

The cat decided to explain. "It's apparently a flash-bang," Yoruichi noted with a deep chuckle. "Lots of noise and a blinding light; good for a distraction, but ultimately useless as a weapon in a fight."

That quickly, Keigo's joy vanished, and thick tears streamed down his face. "Why! Why do you have no confidence in me?" he exclaimed exuberantly.

Tatsuki let out a sigh, but clapped a hand reassuringly on Keigo's shoulder. "Don't worry," she comforted him. "You can show it to Mizuiro later. Then he can insult you, too." The black haired boy was currently somewhere on the other side of the training grounds with Urahara, trying to unlock his own powers.

"Brilliant idea!" Keigo immediately cheered up, for the minute it took for her last words to finally register. "He'll at least think it's—Heeeey."

Yumichika sniffed loudly, drawing their attention. "How ugly," he commented, looking down his nose at Tatsuki. "Insulting one who is stronger than yourself. You have just as little honor as I would expect from someone so unattractive."

Tatsuki stared at him incredulously for a moment before turning to regard Keigo. "Stronger? You're joking, right? I could easily kick him into next-"

"I'm not talking about purely fighting prowess. Which of the two of you has developed any powers at all?" he pointed out calmly, looking altogether far too smug. "The boy has more reiatsu than you do, too."

As Keigo looked more and more puffed up by Yumichika's comments, Tatsuki's teeth ground together. She knew the feathery man was simply trying to make her angry in revenge for her earlier comments about his outfit, but the fact was that she couldn't deny his statements, and that stung deeply.

"Right!" the exuberant, brown-haired boy called out, turning expectantly to Yoruichi. "So! When are we going to go rescue Ichigo? I'm _totally_ ready to go kick some hollow butt!"

Immediately, Tatsuki froze, unable to even bring herself to look over her shoulder to stare at Keigo with horror. Yoruichi started to comment, but stopped as he noted everyone else's reaction. Silence fell over the area, and the air grew thick with sudden tension.

After a long pause, the obviously confused boy meekly spoke up again. "What?"

"You... didn't hear about it yet?" Tatsuki's voice was soft, but strained.

"Hear about what?" Keigo's voice cracked with a slight edge of panic. "Hear about _what_?" he repeated more frantically when nobody answered.

Tatsuki couldn't say it. She still didn't want to believe it herself.

Ikkaku let out a scoff. "Fine. Leave me to be the bearer of bad news again." He turned to face Keigo and Yoruichi with an uncharacteristically serious expression. "Kurosaki Ichigo—or at least the Kurosaki Ichigo you once knew—is dead. He was turned into a hollow by the man who kidnapped him, Aizen Sousuke."

Keigo's mouth fell open in disbelief, and he slowly turned from one member of the group to the next, desperately searching for some clue from one of them that the bald man was lying. "Dead?" the word came out in a whisper.

Yoruichi was visibly distressed, even for a cat. "I take it that Kisuke knows already?"

Ikkaku nodded. "The Kuchiki girl yelled at him a bit when we first got back here. He took the news pretty hard."

"I can imagine," the feline murmured. "Did he-"

"HA! HAHA!" Everyone jumped slightly as Keigo suddenly burst into laughter, swaggering over and throwing an arm around Tatsuki's shoulder with a huge grin plastered on his face. "Good one, guys! Seriously! But don't think you can fool me!"

Tatsuki stared at Keigo as he snickered, tightening his arm around the back of her neck and reaching up to ruffle her hair with his other hand. "C'mon, really? You can't act so unconvincingly and expect me to fall for it! I'm not that gullible, am I?"

Roughly, Tatsuki threw the other boy off of her. "You idiot! We're not-"

Keigo let out an overdramatic wail. "That _is_ what you're saying, isn't it?!" he demanded. "You're calling me gullible! I thought we were friends, Arisawa-san!"

"This isn't about you!" Tatsuki burst out angrily, throwing a punch at his face without thinking.

The brown-haired boy yelped, throwing his hands up, and a burst of light flashed in Tatsuki's face, causing her to flinch involuntarily. This gave Keigo time enough to escape, and he skittered back several feet, looking slightly relieved. "Ha! See? It's _totally_ useful in a real fight! You can't keep me from going with you on this rescue mission! It'll take more than _that_ to keep me home!"

With a growl, Tatsuki stepped forward and grabbed the front of Keigo's shirt, lifting him up off the ground slightly. She wished she had a wall or a rock nearby to shove him into for good measure, but this would have to do. "It's not a joke, you idiot. Orihime, Sado, and these other guys got back from Hueco Mundo yesterday, and they saw it for themselves."

Keigo laughed, but now it was obviously a forced laugh, and he looked away, not meeting her eyes. "Come on, Arisawa. It's _Ichigo_. He and Chad are both like tanks. There's just no way-"

"Get it into your thick head!" Tatsuki yelled at him, shaking him slightly as she forced back the sting of tears. "He's _gone_, Asano. He's really gone, and he's never coming back!"

For a long moment, Keigo searched her face, stunned beyond words for once in his life. Then, finally, he slumped in her grasp. "That's... impossible," he got out, his voice thick.

Tatsuki dropped him, turning away and taking a deep breath so that she could properly school her expression. Behind her, Keigo's knees buckled beneath him and he fell to the rocky ground, gazing down at his hands.

"But then... What were we training for? All this work, all these powers, was so that we could go protect Ichigo!" His cheeks were visibly wet now, and his voice cracked. "And we didn't even get the chance to try?"

Tatsuki's fingers clenched as she grit her teeth.

"And why are you still training? What..." he took a shaky breath. "What's the point, Arisawa?"

"The point is to protect people!" she shouted at him angrily, whirling to face him and planting her feet firmly.

In surprise, he stared up at her with large, tear-filled eyes. "What?"

Tatsuki set her jaw. "We couldn't save Ichigo. But this Aizen guy is trying to take over the world or something, and there are other people we care about who are going to be in danger because of that. And that's not even counting the danger they could be in just from normal hollows that show up around here." The fuzzy memory she had of Orihime saving her from that missile-launching hollow still haunted her dreams at night. If her friend hadn't managed to gain powers of her own right then, both of them would have been...

Something inside her seemed to flare up, as though her sheer determination were causing her tired muscles to strengthen and her mind to clear.

"We couldn't save Ichigo," she repeated, glaring at Keigo again. "But I _**refuse**_ to let anyone else get hurt because I was too weak to save them."

"Pretty words!" Ikkaku called to Tatsuki suddenly, his voice at once excited and dangerous. As she jerked to face him, he flared his reiatsu high, nearly sending her to her knees. "Now back them up with action! Prove you're strong enough!" He jumped high into the air, seeming to move in slow motion, his sword ready to crash down on her head.

The fact that she'd dropped the sword he'd given her a long time ago didn't even cross her mind. The fact that the killing intent behind his attack was so thick in the air that she could nearly taste it didn't seem to matter. Her eyes narrowed as he neared her, a burning intensity glowing within them, and she fell into a relaxed fighting stance, pulling back to deliver her strongest punch.

The fire within her seemed to travel down her arm, collecting in her fist, and at the last moment, she stepped into the punch with all her might, aiming it right at his chest. As she did so, her wristband on her right hand let out a burst of light and she felt all the accumulated energy release all at once.

Next thing she knew, Ikkaku was flying backwards through the air, a large, smoldering hole ripped in the fabric of his black robes. With a grunt of surprise, he hit a nearby rock and smashed right through it, shards of stone raining across the area.

For a long moment, nobody moved. Ikkaku coughed, too stunned to pull himself from the rubble just yet. Tatsuki stood still, pulling in long, labored breaths, staring in awe and satisfaction at what she had just accomplished. Keigo, Yumichika, and Yoruichi watched with varying degrees of shock on their faces, though the cat at least seemed proud of what it saw.

Then, Keigo began to wail. "Not faaaaaiiiirr!" he whined, dancing around with both hands thrown up in the air. "So totally not fair! I get a piddly little flash bang, and she gets a rocket launcher?! Tell me, in what world is this considered even the tiniest bit fair?!"

"Shut up, Asano," Tatsuki growled at him, though she wasn't really paying any mind to his increasingly loud, pitifully fake sobbing. Instead, her attention had turned to the device now strapped to her right hand, which did, in fact, look a lot like a tiny rocket launcher. Though, she'd never before heard of a rocket launcher made out of a karate sweatband and five golden launcher tubes. One of the tubes had been emptied, wisps of smoke escaping slowly from both ends.

Ikkaku apparently caught his breath, because he jumped to his feet, scattering rubble as he did. A huge, terrifying grin had spread across his face, and he snatched up his sword, ignoring the fact that a bloody burn marred his whole chest. "Alright! Now that's what I'm talking about! Let's see what that little thing can really do!"

Tatsuki would have been perfectly happy to do just that, but black spots had begun to dance across her vision. She'd been training at this all day (or possibly for several days? It was hard to tell in this underground place) and now she'd just literally thrown everything she had left at him.

She could see Keigo's pitiful look become concerned as she didn't answer, and she started to lift up her hand to give him a thumbs up. "I'm okay," she tried to assure him, but it really only came out as a mumble as the world faded away.

* * *

Ichigo's eyes opened to a dizzying swirl of red and grey, and after a moment he forced himself to close them again while he reoriented himself. What had happened? He hadn't felt this terrible and weak since the time Byakuya had taken Rukia's powers away from him so many months ago. He could feel his hands trembling by his sides, and his chest hurt with a dull ache. Why did he feel so bad?

Finally, he felt stabilized enough to try opening his eyes again, this time more slowly. The landscape around him, while one of the more bizarre things he'd ever seen, was strangely familiar. Dark, rectangular blocks loomed huge in random configurations in the air around him, which swirled with an ominous red hue.

It was the place he'd seen during his battle with his inner hollow—when he'd been training with the Vaizard. The place he'd thought he'd hallucinated through the pain of having a sword through his stomach.

Vaguely, he remembered being accosted by Kenpachi the last time he'd been in here, but somehow, he couldn't quite bring himself to care. If he was attacked again, he'd defend himself, of course, but for now, it just didn't seem to matter that much.

Slowly, his memories of the present trickled back to him. Time travel. Kidnapping by Aizen. His hollow's abrupt takeover.

He let out a sigh. Was nothing in his life ever destined to go right?

Eventually, feeling slightly restless, he raised his head, glancing around him to see if there really was anyone around. Nothing. The place was empty save for the floating cubes and himself.

He pulled himself into a sitting position, for lack of anything better to do, and he languidly watched the blocks hover in the air around him as his headache slowly cleared.

Still, nothing continued to happen. Nobody appeared, nothing moved even the slightest bit. After what seemed like an eternity, Ichigo felt his eyes drooping shut.

The moment he noticed this, he shook himself awake. He knew he'd read somewhere that you weren't supposed to go to sleep if you had certain injuries, but he couldn't remember if a giant sword stabbed through the chest counted as one of those. His teeth ground together at the thought. Stupid hollow.

Still, if he wasn't dead yet, he certainly didn't want to die from something as stupid as sleeping when he shouldn't. He pushed himself slowly to his feet.

He still felt a little wobbly, but after a few shaky seconds, things seemed a little more stable. With a scowl, he called out, "Hello? Is anyone here?"

No answer. Not that he'd expected one at this point.

The silence almost seemed to ring in his ears. He gave a half-hearted shrug and took a few small steps forward. Part of him was bored enough to want to explore this strange place, but he found he was having a hard time caring enough to bother moving faster than a shuffle. It didn't really matter where he was; it wasn't like he would ever be able to get himself out of here at this point, so he had plenty of time to get used to the place.

He made his way to the nearest edge of the block he stood upon, peering downward. Nothing down there but the same floating blocks and red space. Walking around the block's perimeter showed the same thing. The blocks nearest him were too far away to try jumping to—though there were some directly below him—and when he tried to solidify the air beneath his feet, nothing happened.

Ichigo frowned down at a block below him, trying to decide if he'd survive the fall it would take to jump down to it. He got the feeling, though, that even if he did, it would just be a block identical to the one he was already on.

What was this place, anyway? An inner world within an inner world? He vaguely remembered watching his own body dissolve earlier, after his hollow had stabbed him.

Thinking about the huge cleaver piercing his chest seemed to bring the ache back, and he rested his hand gingerly on the nonexistent wound, only half surprised to find that it seemed to have healed already, or perhaps simply disappeared. But it wasn't just the stabbing that caused him pain. In the end, when the hollow had finally lost patience with him and attacked him, Zangetsu had betrayed him, and nothing stung sharper than that.

Ichigo's shoulders drooped, and any anger he might have felt toward his long-time partner immediately dissipated. No, Zangetsu hadn't betrayed him. If anything, he was the one who had betrayed Zangetsu by not continuing to look forward. The old man had merely finally given up on him.

He hung his head with another sharp sigh as he mentally berated himself for having lost the zanpakutou's trust in him so easily. But what more could he have done? Even if he had tried harder to put their plan into action, it wasn't as though it ever would have worked. But then, that was the problem: he hadn't let himself believe, and he had lost so much hope in life that even his will to fight had left him.

And when that happens to a person… No, there really wasn't anything more he could have done.

"Stubborn idiot!" The sudden voice directly behind him was accompanied by something hard colliding with the back of his head, sending him toppling right over the edge of the block and into open air.

With a startled cry, Ichigo twisted, righting himself in mid-air. He landed hard on the block below and stumbled awkwardly for several steps before losing his footing completely and crumpling to the ground. With a gasp of pain, he flipped himself over, looking up at the diminutive girl who'd kicked him. "W-what was that for?" he exclaimed, one hand going up to rub the back of his head.

Rukia glared back at him before jumping lightly down to his level. "How could you have let yourself fall so far?" she demanded, starting to stalk towards him.

At first, Ichigo thought she meant the long drop she'd just sent him on, and he started to retort angrily, but he stopped as his current situation came back to him. Slowly, he frowned at her.

This wasn't actually Rukia, he realized. Like Kenpachi had been before, this was some sort of projection of his subconscious or something.

He came to the conclusion that his subconscious was seriously messed up.

Rukia reached his side and grabbed the front of his shihakusho, hauling him up to a kneeling position. He almost laughed at the fact that even like this the midget was still only barely taller than eye-level with him, but then she yelled in his face. "This is pathetic, Ichigo! I've come to expect so much more from you!"

All levity disappeared as shame took over. He knew what she was talking about. His flooded inner world. His loss of hope. And the fact that he'd let his hollow take control.

Projection or not, he couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes. He took a long time to respond, and when he finally did, his voice was dull. "I've been through a lot, Rukia. Can you blame me for not being able to take any more? I just... don't have anything left."

Her eyes narrowed as she regarded him calmly. "I don't believe you."

Thoroughly surprised at that, Ichigo raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't believe me? About what? That I've been _broken_ for a long time now?"

"What have you always done, Ichigo? If you're weak, you become stronger," Rukia directed, still giving him a harsh look. "If you're broken, you put yourself back together!"

"Look, it's not that simple," Ichigo argued, starting to become angry himself. "I've taken Health classes; I _know_ what PTSD is. Symptom number one: horrible flashbacks at inopportune moments. Symptom two-"

Rukia interrupted him with a yell, shoving him away from her roughly. "Think, you idiot! All of your friends are alive! Your family is alive! And they're all waiting for you to get your act together and come home! How dare you say that you have nothing left to fight for! What right do you have to lose hope in yourself!?"

"It doesn't matter how much hope I have!" Ichigo retorted indignantly, scrambling to his feet. "I can hope all I want, but I can't win! No matter what I do, no matter how hard I struggle, there are just some opponents who can't be beaten! There's no point in trying!"

Strangely, Rukia's voice turned very soft as she frowned at him. "That's not what you said while you were fighting Ulquiorra."

Ichigo froze as the words he'd spoken came back to him. "_I'm not fighting you because I think I can win,_" he'd informed the Arrancar after the other had released his Segunda Etapa. "_I'm fighting... because I __have__ to win!_"

"You've overcome many hopeless situations in the past, Ichigo. This should not be enough to make you lose hope now!"

Slowly, Ichigo grit his teeth, looking away from her again. He'd forgotten that, as a projection of his subconscious and not actually Rukia, she'd know things like that. "This..." he started roughly, swallowing hard. "This is different."

"How?" she challenged. "You won that battle, Ichigo. Maybe not the way you wanted to, but you won. And you can win again. You _are_ winning again!"

Ichigo let out a light scoff that was almost a laugh as he threw his arms up, indicating the bizarre surroundings. "Yes, because this is totally what it looks like when I'm winning," he said sarcastically. "Trapped in my own subconscious, or whatever this place is, while the people counting on me wait in vain for a return that'll never happen. Yeah, definitely winning."

Rukia's eyes narrowed at him once more. "Haven't you even bothered to try looking outside, Ichigo?"

"Looking..." Ichigo stared at her, his hands falling back to his sides slowly as the words sunk in. "I can do that?"

She didn't bother to answer him, instead merely giving him a "Duh" expression.

His hands clenched in slight irritation, but he decided to ignore her, instead closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath, trying to concentrate. Normally, bringing himself out of his inner world felt as though he were physically pulling himself up out of it. Now, he felt almost the same way, except that the process had become extremely slow, as though he pulled himself through thick syrup.

He wasn't sure if he really _wanted_ to see what his hollow was doing with his body in the first place. He could just imagine the havoc and destruction that was probably going on out there...

Gradually, images started fading into his sight, and he focused in on them, trying to make them clearer.

He stood in the desert of Hueco Mundo. Las Noches' huge form was nowhere to be seen. Grimmjow walked just in front of him, hands jammed into pockets, looking bored out of his mind as he stalked forward. No swords were drawn. No signs of blood or even hostility. It seemed almost tranquil.

Ichigo frowned, trying to turn his head to change the view, to no avail. He had no control; he watched the proceedings as he would a recording.

A very _bad_ recording. The image jumped from one frame to the next unsteadily, and the muted sounds of footfalls on the sand didn't seem to match up with the actual movements they made. Concentrating a little harder, he could make what he saw move a little more smoothly, but it took a huge amount of effort, and far too soon, he found himself tiring.

Still, neither Grimmjow nor his hollow seemed to be doing anything other than simply walking, looking around as they went. Tracking something, perhaps? He doubted they were just taking a pleasant stroll. "What are they doing?" he muttered, still trying to make the images he saw come into greater focus.

"Patrolling," Rukia answered unexpectedly. Ichigo opened his eyes to give her a questioning glance, and she examined her fingernails disinterestedly. "Your friends came to rescue you a few days ago, so the Arrancar are on higher alert for Shinigami activity."

A stab of panic flashed through Ichigo's chest. "My friends broke into Hueco Mundo? What happened? Are they...?"

"Alive," Rukia informed him in a gentler tone. "Alive and, for the most part, unharmed. Your hollow sent them back to the living world through a Garganta."

Letting his eyes fall shut again, Ichigo swallowed hard, both relieved and confused to hear that. Somehow, he couldn't fathom why the hollow wouldn't have simply killed them. Didn't hollows usually attack the ones they were close to?

"Is it too hard to believe that your hollow might actually want to follow through on his original plan to deceive and defeat Aizen?"

Ichigo scowled, whirling on her. "Hey, that doesn't sound like something Rukia would..." he trailed off, stunned to find that she was gone. Glancing around, no trace of her remained. She'd simply disappeared.

Grumpily, Ichigo let out a huff. This was exactly why he could never manage lucid dreaming: the moment he realized something didn't make sense, the thing that didn't make sense vanished.

Her words still seemed to echo in the empty space around him. His hollow might still want to take Aizen down? Well, that would be nice, unlikely though it was. But why had she said that? Was she implying that his hollow had left his friends alive as part of that plan?

Still, he'd believe that these really were his hollow's intentions when he saw his sword in Aizen's heart, and not before. He refused to let himself get too optimistic where his hollow was concerned.

"Hey, Shichi!"

It took Ichigo several seconds to figure out where Grimmjow's voice was coming from before he squeezed his eyes shut, focusing again on the images of what was going on outside. It took him—and his hollow—even longer to realize that the Arrancar was using the name 'Shichi' to refer to him. Or, rather, to his hollow.

The hollow merely raised an eyebrow at Grimmjow in question. "Shichi?" he wondered, his echoing dual-voice sounding even stranger than usual due to the bad quality of the link Ichigo had to the outside. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Grimmjow smirked. "You, obviously. You're the seventh Espada now. Shichi means Seven. I don't care if you don't want a name, I ain't calling you 'hey, you.' So unless you'd like me to call you 'that crazy sissy with the candy cane mask'..."

Ichigo couldn't help but to snort at the description. He'd never thought of the mask stripes in quite that fashion before.

The hollow snickered. "Candy cane? Really?"

"Yeah, you know, I think I like that better." Grimmjow's grin widened. "Now get over here, Candy Cane."

"Yeah, no." The hollow's own grin matched his companion's. "Unless you'd like me to call you Kitty."

Grimmjow's smile morphed instantaneously to a glower. "Do and you will not live to see another day."

"You say that like you'd actually be able to take me, Kitty," the hollow teased.

Grimmjow growled at him, but strangely, he didn't immediately attack. "Why did you choose to challenge number seven instead of me, anyway?" he asked out of the blue. "You and your other self both seem to have no problem barging in here and riling me up, trying to get me to fight with you, and then when it came down to the wire, you chickened out and called out someone else. Why?"

The hollow gave him a sidelong glance before continuing to walk up the side of a white sand dune, his usual smirk never leaving his face. "Because I don't want to kill you."

Grimmjow snorted. "First time I've heard someone tell me that."

"Sucks to have a bunch of hollows for friends, huh?" the hollow snickered. "Everyone always wants to eat one another."

"Except for you." It wasn't a question. Grimmjow gave his companion a gauging look. "You don't want to kill me, you spared your other self's friends-"

The hollow interrupted with a snort. "I have my reasons."

Grimmjow shook his head. "Your reasons suck," he declared. "Potential allies, you say? Right. And why would you want to do that when you're already untouchable as part of Aizen's army? Do you really think he's not going to see right through your pale excuses to your plans to betray him?"

Immediately, the hollow froze, turning to frown at Grimmjow with a strange half-smile on his face. "Ah, so this is why you waited until we were out in the middle of nowhere—away from the security cameras—before you asked me about this. And why you told your fraccion not to come with us."

Ichigo found himself stunned as well. Grimmjow, of all people, had managed to figure out their plans?

The Arrancar gave the hollow a nonchalant shrug before breezing past him, continuing along their patrol route. "Look, I don't care. I want Aizen dead as much as the next guy around here. But you do 'subtle' like a parade of noisy elephants, and he's not stupid. The moment you and any allies you have make your move, he'll kill you, with absolutely no regrets."

"Well, aren't you just full of sagely wisdom these days?" the hollow chuckled, following after him. "First about joining Aizen, now about plotting against him? Then what is your advice, O wise one?"

Grimmjow growled at him again. "Shut up. I didn't say I've got a plan. Just that you need one before I'll help you."

The hollow went silent as he thought, and Ichigo found himself feeling frustrated that he couldn't figure out what his other self was actually thinking about. The idea that Aizen could be anticipating a betrayal of some sort from them already was depressing enough, but not knowing what his hollow planned to do about it was almost nerve-wracking.

For a long time, nobody spoke as they walked up and down Hueco Mundo's many sand dunes.

Then, eventually, the hollow posed a question. "You've been around Aizen longer than I have. If we could get any number of people to attack Aizen simultaneously, how many do you think it would take to match his power?"

Ichigo frowned, remembering a time when several Captains and Vaizard _had_ attacked Aizen simultaneously. He'd cut all of them down without even flinching. He'd barely even needed to use the illusion abilities of his sword.

"That would depend on how strong each of the people attacking him were," Grimmjow finally decided. "If they were all about my level, then maybe ten? Fifteen? If they were Ulquiorra-level, on the other hand... Pisses me off to admit it, but the guy is a total powerhouse. Unfortunately, he's _very_ much on Aizen's side."

The hollow nodded thoughtfully. "So we have two out of fifteen of your level so far."

"Don't think we'll be able to find much more than that," Grimmjow warned. "Out of the entire rest of the Espada, only Barragan and _maybe_ Nnoitra would be willing to help us. The rest feel like they owe the guy too much, or some crap like that."

"You've sounded them out on this already?" The hollow seemed a bit surprised by this.

Grimmjow snorted. "My first week here, yeah. It's no secret around here that _I_ hate Aizen's guts."

Slowly, the hollow nodded again. "So if we want to try the direct attack approach, we'd have to get the Shinigami's support somehow. Attack him at the same time that the Captains do."

That made Grimmjow laugh outright. "Good luck with _that_. And good luck trying to convince them not to kill us when they're done with Aizen."

Ichigo couldn't help but to sigh. Grimmjow was right: Very few Shinigami would want to work with the hollows, and vice versa. That was the same problem they'd had in his own time. It was why he and the other Vaizard had bounties on their heads.

Judging by the grin on his hollow's face, though, he wasn't too worried about it. "There are some among them who would be willing to work with us if it meant taking down Aizen. And there's also a group of powerful ex-captains who were exiled from Soul Society due to Aizen's plotting who would be willing to help."

"Even assuming you could get more help," Grimmjow said dryly, "there's still the problem of his illusions. All of us have seen his release."

The hollow shrugged. "I haven't seen it yet," he reminded him smugly. Ichigo felt a mild wave of relief at that confirmation. They still had one ace in the hole, anyway. "But you have a point; he'll show it to me sooner rather than later. Any other ideas besides a direct assault?"

Grimmjow rolled his eyes. "I do subtle worse than you do. You really think that-"

His sarcastic comment was suddenly cut off by a shrill scream close by, and both turned in mild surprise to see three figures barreling towards them at high speeds, two of them chasing the last. The one being chased—a small figure in a hooded cloak—wasn't watching where she was going, instead focusing on the angry-looking pursuers as she screeched in fear.

Ichigo recognized them in an instant and his hopes soared. It was Nell, Pesche, and Dondochakka.

Ichigo's hollow side-stepped at the last moment before the lead figure ran him over, then he reached down and snatched her up by the scruff of her neck, lifting her up to face level to inspect her. For a moment, her feet kept running in mid-air before she finally realized that she'd stopped moving and looked up at the hollow with surprise.

"ACK!" she squealed, flailing around pathetically. "Help! Help! Pleathe don't eat me!"

Dondochakka and Pesche both screeched to a halt, staring at them with horror. "Nell-sama!"

"Well, well, what do we have here?" the hollow snickered. Ichigo could tell by the amusement in his voice that he recognized her as well, from his earlier descriptions of her. "I didn't expect to run into such a measly Arrancar way out here in the middle of nowhere."

Nell, meanwhile, had apparently spotted something that brought a look of sheer terror on her face, and she went totally limp, nothing but stammers coming out of her mouth. The hollow glanced down for a moment to see what she was staring at and a wicked grin crossed his face. Ichigo felt a brief moment of dismay to realize that his shoulder now had a tattoo on it: a highly stylized 7, just peeking out from beneath the sleeveless white uniform he wore.

Pesche ran forward and fell to his knees at the hollow's feet, bowing his head down to the sand and yelling out a hasty apology. "Please let her go, Espada-dono! We didn't mean to almost run into you! We meant no harm!"

Grimmjow let out a snort of amusement. "What, you want us to give you your prey back?" he taunted.

All three looked horrified by this notion. "I'th their brother, not their prey!" Nell clarified with a strangled noise, trying to wiggle out of his grasp. "We'th jutht playin' games! Pleathe don't hurt uth!"

The hollow laughed eerily, crouching down and setting Nell gently on her feet in front of him. "We ain't gunna hurt ya. Now, who the heck are you guys?"

Nell's eyes were still wide, but she gave him an awkward curtsy-turned-falling-flat-on-her-face. "I'm Nell tu!"

"And I'm Pesche!" the thin hollow announced from behind her.

"And I'm Dondochakka, don'cha know!" the last of their group finished off.

Pesche jumped up into the air. "And together, we are...!"

At that, all shyness vanished and the three of them leapt into a familiar joint pose, each of them screaming out a different name. There was a moment of silence, and then they broke out into an argument with each other. The hollow snickered at them. Grimmjow just rolled his eyes.

"The name's Grimmjow," he said lazily, ignoring how loud they were being. Then he jerked a thumb at Ichigo's hollow. "And this is Candy Cane."

Nell looked fascinated by this, enough so that she stopped her squabbling with the others. "That'th really your name?"

The hollow glared at his fellow Espada. "No, it isn't. Shut up, Kitty," he growled. He focused back in on Nell. "Just use Shichi if you want to call me something."

"But Candy Cane is thuch a pretty name!" Nell insisted.

Ichigo let out a laugh as his hollow nearly gagged. Grimmjow sniggered to himself despite the hollow's continued glaring. Nell simply blinked up at them both innocently.

Finally, the hollow simply fixed Nell and the rest of her group with a large grin, the expression dangerous-looking despite the smile. "Tell you what," he said almost sweetly. "You can call me whatever you like. However, every time I hear that name, I'm giving this guy a black eye. Got it?"

The threat might have been more effective if the "this guy" he'd been referring to wasn't Grimmjow. Nell gave him a happy giggle. "Okay, Candy Cane!"

Grimmjow scowled. "Hey, wait a-" He was unable to say anything more, because the hollow had suddenly leapt on him, his fist connecting solidly with Grimmjow's face, sending him flying. The blue-haired Arrancar lay there stunned for a moment, before sitting up with a growl. "Why you..."

With that, he jumped up and attacked the hollow. The two tussled in the sand for several minutes as Nell, Pesche, and Dondochakka all cheered them on loudly.

It had been such a long time since Ichigo had laughed, he hadn't thought that he could anymore, but it felt good to let himself relax a bit as he did. It didn't solve any of his many problems. Not really. And yet, being able to laugh felt like getting a good night's sleep. Like maybe he _could_ solve them eventually.

And that was a thought that hadn't crossed his mind since... he couldn't even remember when.

Eventually, the two Espada stopped their fight, each of them bearing new bumps and scrapes (and Grimmjow's black eye) despite only going at it bare-handed. As with most of their battles, no clear winner had been decided, but both had started to become annoyed enough with the yelling and random poses of the "Great Desert Brothers" to stop and bop the larger two hollows upside the head.

As Dondochakka and Pesche nursed their new wounds, tended by a flailing Nell, Ichigo's hollow settled into a sitting position on the sand, giving the strange trio a thoughtful look.

"You know of Urahara Kisuke, right?" he asked suddenly, obviously directing his question to Grimmjow, though his gaze never left the small girl.

Grimmjow shrugged. "Aizen told us to avoid him if we met him. Other than that? Nah. Why?"

"He and Aizen have some thing going, yeah," the hollow acknowledged with a smirk. "He's also the one who made me like this. Don't know much more about him than that either, but if there'd be anyone willing to help take down Aizen, it'd be him."

Abruptly, Dondochakka and Pesche fell completely silent, though Nell obliviously continued fussing over them.

The blue-haired Arrancar glared at him suspiciously, glancing over at the other three hollows briefly. "Why do I get the feeling that you've just come up with some crazy plan involving these losers?"

An enormous grin spread across the hollow's face.

* * *

It _had_ been a nice, normal day at the Urahara Shouten. Only one or two people had showed up in search of candy that morning, which was actually pretty good business considering the shop's terrible location in the back alleys of Karakura. Ichigo's friends were still at work down in the underground training area, and Kuchiki Rukia had showed up to inform Ikkaku and Yumichika that their captain had given them permission to stay in town to continue Tatsuki's training now that she'd unlocked her powers (with the condition that he got a chance to test her fighting prowess once they were done).

The day turned bizarre right as Rukia was about to leave. With one hand on the door, she paused to give Urahara a curt farewell, and then gave it a push.

Abruptly, it exploded inward, knocking the small girl to the floor as several projectiles smashed their way through. Urahara jumped to his feet, hands ready to draw Benihime from his cane, bracing himself as the debris thrown up began to settle.

"He throwed uth!" a sobbing wail pierced through the dust as a tiny figure burst from the broken boards of what used to be his front door. "Why did he throwed uth? We wath gunna go through!"

Two more creatures also pulled themselves from the wreckage, and the larger of them started coughing. The other called, "Nell-sama! Are you alright?"

"No!" the first voice exclaimed pitifully. "He throwed uth, Pesche!"

Urahara relaxed, realizing that whoever these people were, they were just as much victims here as his poor shop door. Quickly, he moved to help dig through the wreckage. "Kuchiki-san, are you okay?"

A faint moan answered his inquiry, and from that he was able to locate her, lying with several thin boards and a small child on top of her.

"Excuse me, miss," Urahara tipped his hat at the sobbing girl briefly before lifting her up and placing her gently onto a nearby counter. That done, he reached down and—after first ascertaining that the Kuchiki girl had no serious injuries—helped his favorite customer to her feet.

"Who ith you?" the girl asked with a watery voice, staring at the two of them with a look of fear mixed with curiosity.

Rukia started to retort angrily, but Urahara stepped in gracefully, bowing respectfully to the small child. "I am Urahara Kisuke, owner of this humble establishment. And this is Kuchiki Rukia."

Abruptly, her fear vanished. "You ith Urahara-than?" she asked excitedly. "Pesche, Dondochakka, we found him!"

"Well, that was easier than I thought it'd be," one of the other two figures said, dusting himself off.

The other large creature nodded quickly. "The Candy Cane guy said that he'd open the gate close to Urahara-san, Don'cha know," he remarked enthusiastically. "But I didn't think he'd be able to open it _this_ close!"

Urahara might have asked who "Candy Cane" was if he weren't too busy blinking in surprise as he realized that the girl's companions were both hollows. Neither seemed inclined to attack anyone, instead remaining focused on fawning over the little girl. And now that he got a better look at her as well, he found that she also had a mask, though hers was cracked and resting on the top of her head.

"You are Arrancar?" he inquired curiously, opening his fan and peering at them over the top of it.

"Of course we'th Arrancar," the girl responded matter-of-factly, putting her hands on her hips. "What elthe would we be?"

Urahara decided not to answer that. He inspected them silently, curious. He'd never heard of an Arrancar with such a distinctly human form that had low enough power levels to appear so young. Something was wrong there.

Rukia, meanwhile, had tensed again, glancing uneasily at Urahara. "Arrancar?" she asked tightly. "What's an Arrancar? More importantly, why are there hollows in here?" Her hand was already on the hilt of her sword, but the shopkeeper gave her a meaningful look, hoping that this odd encounter would remain peaceful enough for him to get some answers.

Ignoring her questions, Urahara spoke up again before the small child or her companions could begin to answer them. "Might I inquire as to who you are, and how you came to be here in such an… extraordinary fashion?" he asked her politely.

The girl beamed as she announced, "I'm Nell tu! Candy Cane and Kitty thent uth here to bring Urahara-than a methage!" Then her face darkened a bit as she added, "But then we wath jutht athking him quethtionth, and mean ol' Kitty throwed uth. And then we wath here!"

"Such a mean guy, Don'tcha know!" the larger of her companions put in, looking distressed. "So rude! So impatient!"

"But a really good arm," the skinny one noted, obviously impressed despite himself. "Real obvious why a guy like that was made an Espada."

That piqued Urahara's interest even further. "You're bringing a message from an Espada?" he asked with surprise.

Rukia gave him a blank look. "A what?" she demanded, refusing to be left in the dark any longer.

"A general, of sorts, in Aizen's army," he explained quickly. As Rukia's eyes widened at that implication, he turned back to Nell. "What is the message?"

"Uuuhh…" For a moment, the girl seemed slightly lost. Then, she whirled on her companions, pointing dramatically at the skinny one. "Oh, yeah! Pesche hath it!" she exclaimed excitedly. "He'th the only one with pocketth to carry thtuff in, tho he hath it!"

Urahara raised an eyebrow skeptically at the hollow she called Pesche. He barely had any real "clothes" on at all, much less something that could have...

"Yes! The message!" Pesche dramatically raised a hand up above his head, giving his fingers a twirling flourish for a moment before plunging them deep into his loincloth, eyes squinting as he rummaged around. Urahara managed to keep his composure, mostly because he had a convenient fan to hide his expression behind, but Rukia paled in obvious disgust as the hollow triumphantly pulled out a (somewhat soiled-looking) sheet of something that resembled paper.

He held it out in Urahara's direction. Automatically, the shopkeeper reached for it, but he stopped himself, jerking his hand behind his back and giving the hollow a wide smile as he snapped his fan shut. "How about you read it to me," he suggested a bit too sweetly. "So that you can be sure I'm reading it correctly."

Pesche waved it at him. "No can do, kind sir! Mr. Candy Cane made me promise I would deliver this to you personally and to none other, including ourselves." He gave Rukia a meaningful look.

"You gotta look at it anyway," Nell added importantly. "It'th got a picture drawn on it."

Urahara's face fell. "Oh, it does, does it?" he asked despairingly. He glanced around furtively, hoping to spot a pair of tongs or something that he could use. Unfortunately, there seemed to be nothing of the sort in the immediate vicinity. Or rather, if there was, it was currently buried under the remains of his front door. Getting anyone else to hold it for him was apparently out of the question.

"Where exactly did you get paper from, anyway?" Rukia asked suspiciously, still rather disgruntled from everything that had occurred in the past few minutes. "From what I've been told, Hueco Mundo is a desert. And why would you be carrying paper, anyway?"

Pesche shrugged. "It's a rare commodity," he admitted. "But it's good to have around. I mean, when you gotta go, you gotta go, and the crystal trees don't exactly provide real leaves for-"

Urahara cleared his throat. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to take that paper over to a table for me, would you? After all, I'm just a humble old man, and my arms would get ever so tired holding it up for that long..."

Rukia glared at him, opening her mouth to protest this, but he swiftly turned her around and gave her a gentle push toward the back rooms. "Kuchiki-dono! Could you please go fetch Tessai for me? Please let him know that we would like some tea in the dining room as soon as he can."

Nell's eyes went wide. "Tea?" she asked softly. "You hath tea?"

Urahara gave her a low bow. "Indeed I do, Miss Nell. Please, follow me, and we'll get this message thing sorted out."

The glare of the black-haired Shinigami never left the back of his head as she exited the room, but thankfully, she apparently opted not to call him out on it. He decided that he definitely owed her several items-worth of store credit.

Soon, he had the three Arrancar settled around the low table in his dining area, Pesche laying the paper gently on the table in front of him and Nell bouncing with anticipation as Tessai poured her a steaming cup of tea. Rukia, apparently not particularly wanting to sit around the table with the hollows, had leaned up against the doorway, arms folded as she watched.

Urahara leaned forward solemnly, carefully reading the message that they had been roped into bringing to him.

"Urahara Kisuke. Aizen is a jerk. We're sick of letting him control us but he's so powerful there's not much we can do about it. Rumor has it that you hate Aizen's guts too. How about a partnership? Meet us at this place. I know you know where it is."

Below those words was a crudely drawn picture. Urahara narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure out what the strange group of cylinders was supposed to be. There were three of them, positioned around a circle and dotted with squares of different sizes. Despite the simplicity of the drawing, it did look strangely familiar. Almost like…

With a frown, he glanced down at the signatures at the bottom of the message. It was signed, "Sexta Espada, Grimmjow" and "Septima Espada, Shichi." Neither name sounded familiar to him, so both were apparently fairly recent additions to Aizen's army.

"What can you tell me about the Espada who sent this?" Urahara asked curiously, keeping his eyes on the drawing.

Nell was in the process of trying not to burn her tongue on her tea, but she tried to answer anyway. "They wath both real tall," she informed him before taking a careful sip. "Candy Cane hath red thtripeth on hith mathk, tho that'th why he'th Candy Cane. I dunno why Kitty'th called Kitty, but he'th got a temper, tho maybe that'th why." With a grin, she added, "Candy Cane ith thilly. I like him."

Urahara nodded thoughtfully. "And how long have you known them?"

"We just met them today!" Pesche said helpfully. "We were playing a game of endless tag and Nell-sama almost ran into them by accident."

Which meant that the message hadn't been planned in advance. Not with such an impromptu messenger. The reason for the messenger, rather than simply visiting him in person, was obvious: Aizen obviously kept track of when his Espada came and went from Hueco Mundo, and they didn't want to raise any suspicion. These together meant that it wasn't likely to be a plot of any sort from Aizen. The message was probably sincere.

But it also raised the question of how they had been able to locate him so easily. He had no doubt that Aizen knew at least approximately where in the human world his little shop was, but it wasn't something he was likely to tell his henchmen unless there was a real reason for it. The question was, then, had these Espada figured out where it was on their own? Or perhaps… they known its location already, even before having _met_ Aizen?

A niggling suspicion grew in Urahara's brain and his eyes narrowed. "What… hair color did these two Espada have?"

Nell smiled. "Kitty hath blue hair, but darker than mine. Candy Cane'th hair ith bright orange."

Rukia let out a near-silent gasp from the doorway, taking a step back. Urahara nodded, looking down to let his hat shade his expression. "Kurosaki-san," he breathed. "What are you up to?"

The teal-haired Arrancar looked confused. "Kuro…thaki?" she repeated unsurely.

"A friend," Urahara explained distractedly. His eyes were drawn to the picture scrawled on the bottom half of the dark paper. Wherever this place was—whatever thing was depicted there—had to be important to this somehow. With a dark frown, he nudged the paper to one side, tilting his head so that he could see it from a different angle. Then he tried the other direction.

It had to be important. It was the key behind this. What was…?

Abruptly, the mysterious columns made sense. Three tall cylindrical pillars covered in lights, positioned around a low platform which held a raised panel designed for inputting reiatsu. Urahara's eyes widened. He did, in fact, know what it was. He had been the one to build it, after all.

Urahara snatched up the drawing and jolted to his feet so fast that he nearly tipped the whole table over, causing Nell and her guests to spill their tea. "It's the time machine!" he blurted in surprise. "It worked!"

* * *

Ohmigoodness, it's finally finished. o.o I've only been working on this chapter for FOREVER now.

Once again, I am very, very sorry for taking so long with my writing. I'm not going to make any promises about the length of time until the next chapter, but I sincerely hope that I'm able to finish it faster than I was able to finish this one. A big thank you to all of you who wait for me, and who have been willing to stick with me on this for so long. And a huge thank you to those who continued to send me reviews and PMs asking me to update this, even when over a year had gone by since the last update. Thanks for not giving up on me.

And finally, a big thanks to Obi-Quiet, for beta reading for me.

Hope you enjoyed! Feel free to share comments and concerns in your review!

-Daricio


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